The Legend of Spyro: Darkfire
by SDjet
Summary: New dragons are coming to Warfang after Malefor's defeat, but someone has taken control over the rest of Malefor's army and is preparing to attack the city as Spyro's dark side gains power. CH 1-3 rewritten.
1. Chapter 1

**Well I read through what I had so far and apparently there is a lot of stuff I either forgot to put or just didn't think through quite right, so I rewrote what I felt needed to be. If you have read it before, please let me know if you think it is better or worse than the original. If not, I hope you enjoy it. My first story so I'll gladly take any constructive criticism but no flames please.**

**I do not own anything except my ideas and some OCs.**

**Chapter One**

'_Where am I?' _Spyro thought, opening his eyes to a burning city. As he looked around, he found himself lying on a mound of dead dragons, three of which startled him. The three were the remaining elemental guardians Cyril, Terrador, and Volteer. He was shocked to see the strongest dragons of each element taken down at once. As he got up, a scream behind him caught his attention. He turned around to find the black dragoness, Cynder, now lifeless beside him. When Spyro looked to see who had taken their lives, his heart sank. He was attacking the city himself. Hovering a few feet in front of him was his dark form. His purple scales had been changed to black and covered in pulsing shadows, his purple eyes were now a ghostly white, and a dark, lightning-like aura had engulfed his entire body.

Just as Spyro tried to attack, he caught a blast of convexity in his chest. He screamed in pain when he felt the beam rip through his chest and slammed him into a nearby wall. He looked up in time to see his dark side already standing over him and put a paw on his throat. He began to feel weaker as the dark dragon held tight, as if he was being drained. Spyro looked into his dark form's soulless white eyes for a moment and thought he saw emotions he never had when he became this menacing killing machine. It seemed as though he didn't transform by accident when the dark dragon looked back down at him and spoke.

"You will know all about what we have done. We changed history too much by stopping the great cleansing. I have to set it straight." Dark Spyro said in a voice that sounded like many voices echoing together. Almost as soon as he finished the sentence, he fired a blast of convexity at the purple dragons head.

Spyro sat straight up with a jolt, finding himself still in his room in the large citadel in Warfang that was to serve as the new dragon temple. He looked over to the window and saw his dragonfly brother, Sparx, still asleep on a small cushion specially made for his size on the windowsill.

'_Another nightmare' _He thought, rolling out of bed. After pushing open a heavy wooden door, he walked into the hallway and closed the door behind him. The door's weight made an echoing sound a bit louder than he wanted, but he ignored it. He went to the balcony, hoping some fresh air would make him feel better, and to see how the city was coming along in its reconstruction after Malefor's invasion two weeks before. The tapping sound of claws on stone made him turn around to see Cynder walking towards him.

"Are you alright Spyro?" she asked in a worried tone.

"Yeah," he said. "It was just another nightmare, nothing to worry about."

"Spyro, you can tell me anything. You've been having nightmares every night for the last two weeks and I have yet to hear about one of them."

Spyro looked at her for a moment before answering. He knew Cynder wouldn't stop asking until he told her. "Okay Cyn, I'll tell you, but I need some time first." He said, not wanting to tell Cynder he had killed her in the nightmare just yet.

The black dragoness nodded before sitting next to him as they both looked towards the volcano outside the city. Spyro was thinking of his dream while Cynder was focusing on the view from the enormous citadel in Warfang.

"Good, you're awake." A deep voice behind them said. They both turned around to see Terrador walking towards them. "I know it's early but I need the two of you to do something for me. After you two killed Malefor, many outlying dragon villages contacted us here in Warfang and are on the way. The closest groups will be here tomorrow and I want the two of you to help them find some places to live here in the citadel until we can finish rebuilding. Once we do, Cyril, Volteer, and I will take over. Some of the messages mentioned some young dragons, some around your age too."

"There are more dragons our age? I thought we were the only eggs to survive the night of raid." Cynder said, looking at the battle worn earth guardian.

"I thought so too, Cynder. Apparently some of the other adults managed to take some eggs with them when they fled. Warfang may be known as the dragon city, but I'm sure this is not the only place dragons have ever lived. There are other cities; just Warfang is the largest and a symbol of unity for dragons, moles, and now cheetahs. It is a perfect place for the dragon race to recover." Terrador said in his usual calm tone. "Some are reluctant to stay in Warfang very long, but I'm sure seeing the purple dragon in the city would change their minds."

"Or make it worse." Spyro added. "Malefor was purple too remember?"

Terrador nodded. "I doubt they will compare you to him. If you were anything like him, he would be alive and the world would still be shattered. Having you two on our side is the only reason we are all alive." The earth guardian walked away without another word.

Cynder put her head on Spyro's shoulder and they looked at the pitch black sky again.

"The guardians make it tough to really have fun anymore don't they? You would think that saving the planet would give us a break, but we somehow went from saviors to tour guides…" Spyro said, attempting to clear his head of his nightmare and getting a giggle out of Cynder in the process.

He looked at the black dragoness and thought about how much she had changed in the past few years. At first, she was gloomy and felt sorry for herself all the time. When they had their adventure together to stop Malefor, she was about as cocky and confident as he always was, but after Ignitus died and Spyro transformed again, she had taken on a very caring, gentle, almost innocent personality.

"So how did you get up at the same time I did?" Spyro asked, trying to start another conversation.

"Your door shut pretty hard, I thought you slammed it at first."

"Oh, well I'm sorry for waking you up then."

"Don't be, I just don't like seeing you sad like that. So decided about telling me what your nightmare was about yet?"

"It's kind of a long story. I'm going to go back to bed soon anyway."

Spyro told Cynder goodnight before walking back to his room. When he opened his door, his eyes widened.

"You didn't think I'd just let you off that easily did you?" the black dragoness on his bed asked.

"H-how did you beat me here?" he asked.

"Shadow is good for a lot more than fighting." Cynder said. "Now, come on Spyro, I really want to know what is bothering you." For a while, Spyro could only stare. She clearly was not going to let him have his bed back until he told her.

The purple dragon jumped onto the bed with Cynder and told him the entire dream from beginning to end. By the time he was done, his head was lying on Cynder's back while she rested her tail across his chest and curved her long neck around to look him in the eyes.

"-and then you were killed but when I saw that I was the one that did it… I just hope it never happens…" Cynder had been paying very close attention to every last detail as she listened to his story.

Even in his sleep, Sparx was a pain. He rolled over on the cushion and started snoring louder than any dragon could, effectively interrupting them several times. The two dragons looked at the sleeping dragonfly and couldn't help but to laugh. Cynder waited for a while longer before speaking.

"It will be fine Spyro. You're stronger than your dark side; we even beat Malefor's so I know you can win against your own. I'll help you in any way I can. I love you Spyro and I refuse to let any dark power take you away from me." With that, Cynder leaned over and gently kissed the purple dragon before laying her head back down and closing her eyes.

"I love you too Cyn." Spyro said before falling asleep again.

**Well, there is the rewritten version of my first story. The others will follow as quickly as possible but with school going on that might take a while. Please review, I really want to know what you guys think.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two**

In the morning, Spyro and Cynder had left the citadel and started their flight over the enormous city. The two dragons could see the front gate now, along with new faces being greeted by moles. There were a few around their age, most of which still had to look down to look a mole in its eyes.

When they landed, the moles left while the new dragons stared at the two legends. Most of them looked at Spyro gratefully while the others looked over to Cynder with a hateful glare. Cynder moved behind Spyro.

"Spyro, it's good to finally meet you. Terrador's message told us everything," A large earth dragon said. "And I really do mean 'everything'." He said as he looked to the black dragoness. His hard glare was enough to make Cynder feel uneasy.

"If my old mentor says that one has changed," he started, motioning toward her. "I'll make sure everyone here treats her as they would anyone else."

The former 'Terror of the Skies' relaxed a bit as she listened to who appeared to be in charge of the others.

"Thank you. Terrador never told me he had a student." Spyro said.

"Many of us left the night before the raid during the confusion. Maybe if we had stayed, we could have won." The large earth dragon said as he looked to the cobblestone street under him like it was the most amazing sight in the world.

"Don't worry about it." Spyro said. The earth dragon nodded walked to the citadel. The older dragons had followed Terrador's old student, but some of the younger ones had stayed behind to look around. As Spyro watched them walk to the citadel, he noticed the green dragon they had just talked to carrying a sky blue dragoness on his back.

"What about Gaul? He hated dragons more than anyone. I don't think he would give up just because the one holding his leash was killed. What happened to him?" a young dragon asked. He looked much like Spyro, but had bright red scales, a yellow underside; light gold spikes down his spine, and his yellow horns were a bit longer. His tail blade resembled a small torch.

Spyro turned back to the red dragon. "Well… I'd rather not say…" He said as his guilt sunk in. "So who are you?"

"Flame and this is Ember." He said, motioning to the dragoness beside him.

She had bright pink scales and a pair of horns that came straight out of the sides of her head before curving back. Her horns and chest were a pale yellow color while her eyes were a bright blue. Her tail blade was shaped like a heart and she wore a necklace with a heart shaped ruby.

"Hi!" she chirped. Her high pitched voice made Cynder jump.

"Nice to meet you, so who is she?" Cynder asked, looking at a white dragoness nearby.

"That's Casille. She's distant as they come but she's alright." Flame said.

The white dragoness wasn't paying any attention to them, but looking at the sky.

Casille had no wings, a small frill down the back of her neck, a pair of grey-blue horns that started at the back of her head, made a full circle, and ended with the end curved to the sides. She had three tails, each with a deadly looking pattern. The left had a few spikes running down the back and a cluster of spikes at the tip. The middle tail was similar to Terrador's, although much smaller and without the mace-like spikes. The right had a closely packed trail of spikes running down from the base to tip, ending in a spearhead. Her scales were a pure white with a grey-blue underside, frill, and tail spikes.

"Um, can I ask why she looks so different or is that too personal?" Spyro asked.

Flame just shrugged and said. "She just hatched that way. The only person she really talks to is Ember, occasionally me, but I still don't know much about her. I thought she was a wind dragon at first but she still hasn't been able to use any element whatsoever."

Spyro and Cynder looked back over to where Casille stood as Ember walked over to her. She was still watching the sky while Ember stood beside her, trying to get her to talk to them.

The white dragoness shook her head before walking over to the rest of them. She looked up at the two with bright blue eyes but didn't say a word.

"Casille?"

She just nodded to the black dragoness, still not saying anything.

"Well, this way everyone." Spyro said as he and Cynder led them to the citadel in the center of Warfang.

Once there, they saw the group in the main room with the guardians busy either rebuilding or giving orders. The guardians sent many of the adult dragons with them, one of which being the earth dragon from earlier. Spyro and Cynder led group up the staircase leading up to the rooms and split up, each taking half the group with them.

"So Spyro, how did you manage to get Cynder to be your ally?" the green dragon from earlier asked.

"Well there isn't much to say other than I broke Malefor's hold on her. She wasn't evil; she was just being controlled by someone who was." Spyro said without looking back. "So who are you?"

"I'm Granite. As I said, I was Terrador's student a long time ago." The large dragon said. "What I meant was just how did you break Malefor's hold on her?"

"Well, we were fighting in convexity and I thought I was going to lose. I tried using one of my elements again but started using some element I had never seen before. It looked like a bright purple light. I used a fury of that and then she's on the ground shrinking."

"That's quite a story." He said.

"If you say so. We're here." Spyro said as he stopped in front of a large door. After Granite left, Spyro looked to see the last of his group, the silent Casille.

Cynder opened a door and showed Ember around. It was a normal looking room, big enough to fit a full grown dragoness and room for whatever she owned. Against the far wall was a large cushion in a dark blue cloth for a bed. Ember thanked the black dragoness before she left to show Flame his room a few doors away. It was almost identical to Ember's other than the bed being grey.

"Cynder." A familiar voice called. She turned to see the ice guardian Cyril coming down the hall.

"Another group just got to the gates. I need you to get them while Spyro finishes. I'll send him out once he's done." The ice guardian said.

She nodded and followed the ice guardian back to the main hall downstairs. She looked outside to see everyone was busy. Volteer was walking just outside the front door with several young dragons while babbling as fast as ever. Terrador was not far giving orders to several moles, cheetahs, and dragons helping with reconstruction.

_I__'__m__going__to__sleep__like__a__log__tonight._ She thought. With a sigh she took off towards the front gate.

"So here's your room." Spyro said, pushing the door open with his head and leading Casille inside. It was a large room with lightly colored stone walls, a blood red bed, and a balcony above the training area outside. "If you need anything don't hesitate to ask. Cynder and I are just-" Spyro said before the normally silent dragoness cut him off.

"Thank you, now what I need is to be alone for a minute, could you and Cynder maybe come back later?" She asked, sounding a bit demanding, but grateful still. "Okay. My room is two doors away if you need something." Spyro said before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him. Casille sat out on the balcony, looking to the sky again, lost in thought.

Cynder was almost to the main gate when Spyro caught up. "Sorry I took so long."

"It's okay Spyro."

"I managed to get Casille to talk, it was short but still…"

"What did she say?"

"She wanted some time alone but asked if we could come by later."

"Sounds like fun. She's definitely interesting. I hope we have enough time." Cynder said as they began to glide down to the gates.

There were only a few dragons this time. It didn't look like it was enough for a village. It barely looked like enough to be a family.

One was a large green dragon, one red, and two dragonesses one red and the other blue. It looked like the red dragon was arguing with the girls while the green was trying to stay out of it.

When they landed, the other three stopped arguing immediately.

"Is something wrong?" Spyro asked.

"Two of our friends got separated from us last night in an attack by a few apes. We couldn't find them anywhere." The blue dragoness said.

"Voltara I understand but why are you worried about the useless one?" the red dragon said.

The other three glared at him.

"What?" he asked. "You all know what he's capable of, so why stand up for him?"

"When has he done anything wrong?" the fire dragoness asked. "If I remember right, he saved your ass nine years ago!" It was almost as if they had completely forgotten the legends were standing beside them.

Just before they tried to break it up, the sound of wings beating got the four to stay quiet. Everyone looked to the wall above the gates as two dragons flew to the courtyard. The first to land was a bright yellow dragoness who looked like she was in her very early twenties. She had a blue underside and black horns with a lightning bolt shape. The tailblade being black as well and also shaped like a lightning bolt. The one with her though, was far more interesting.

He was a black dragon with dark blue eyes, a navy colored underside, and four ivory horns each about two feet long that came straight out from behind his temples, wide navy wings, and an ivory tail blade shaped like a serrated arrowhead. Standing straight up, he was only slightly bigger than Spyro.

Cynder could only stare. She believed she was the only black dragon, but here was another one, very close to their age as well.

Spyro began introductions. Everyone was paying close attention except for the black dragon that was looking around. "We have room for you all in the temple until-"

"You guys go ahead; I want to explore this place on my own a little." The black dragon said with a hint of irritation in his voice before flying off into the city.

"Jet, wait!" The yellow dragoness cried.

"Why are you so worried?" the fire dragon asked coldly. "It would probably be better off if he just didn't come back. I thought you guys would have learned not to trust him after what his kind did to us." Without missing a beat, the fire dragoness beside him punched him in the jaw.

"What do you mean by 'his kind'?" Cynder asked.

"Shadow dragons." the yellow dragoness answered. "We were attacked by a few about seventeen years ago that were looking for something. They apparently didn't find it and ran away. Almost all of us died and our village was decimated, it's just been us since then and Torch hasn't let it go."

"Cynder, can you go find him? I'll take care of things here." The purple dragon asked. She nodded and flew off in the same direction Jet had while the others were shown to the temple.

Cynder finally found the black dragon sitting on his haunches beside a small pool. "Hey, are you alright? You seemed kind of mad back there." She asked, sitting beside him. The black dragon just stared out over the water for a few seconds before turning to face Cynder.

"A little… the trip here took a few days so I'm just a little tired, the attack last night didn't help either. If we weren't close enough to see the city, I probably wouldn't have found my way here. Torch messing with me put me over. He's not exactly the best at anger management. He ends up taking his anger out on everyone, usually me."

"Well forget him." Cynder snapped. "They said you were a shadow dragon. You could beat him down easy!"

"Yeah yeah, Amanda always told me the same thing every time Torch did something like that." Jet said.

"Amanda? You mean that yellow dragoness?" Cynder asked.

"No, Amanda was a wind dragoness I met a long time ago. We grew up together with her big sister Voltara watching us. She's the yellow one."

"So why wasn't she with you guys? Did she get lost too?"

The shadow dragon closed his eyes for a minute before answering. "I was only eight at the time but it was pretty vivid. We were all running away from some apes and we stopped to rest, but we couldn't find Amanda. We wanted to go back and find her but there were just too many apes." He said while keeping his eyes closed.

"I'm so sorry…" she said sadly.

"It's fine. What's in the past is done and we can't change it. I just try to move on and let things go. How do you think I put up with our so-called 'leader' for so many years?" the shadow dragon grinned.

Cynder laughed. "So do you know anything about the shadow dragons that attacked your village?"

"I don't. All I know is Voltara was watching the fight from cover and a thunderbolt hit a shadow dragoness who was trying to hide from both sides. She was dead but Voltara felt bad about just leaving when she saw the shadow dragoness was holding my egg. After she persuaded Torch to let her, she raised me herself along with Amanda."

"That had to be hard."

"Not really. All she had to do was basic stuff like getting food. I kept to myself and trained all the time."

"I meant convincing Torch. Why is he in charge anyway?"

"He seems like an ass, but he keeps everyone safe. He's came close to losing his tail several times just to save us. Give him a few hours and you will get to see what he's normally like. It just isn't a good day for him."

"Alright." Cynder started. "So your name is Jet?"

The black dragon nodded. "Voltara gave me the name of course. She said I was named after some kind of black gemstone she found the week before I hatched."

"So you're named after a rock?"

Jet nodded again. "I guess so. Anyway, think we can go now? I'm tired."

"Sure, try to keep up." Cynder smirked before taking off.

Her head start didn't last long though. She turned her head to see how close Jet was, only to see him shoot past her. The navy blue membranes of his wings were now coated with black shadowfire and he quickly sped ahead. They met up in front of the citadel with Jet breathing heavily.

"What was that?" Cynder asked while landing in front of him.

"Just something… I made up…" Jet said in between breaths. "You can use shadow too right? I could teach you if you like."

Cynder nodded before showing him to the second floor of the temple. She opened a door and showed Jet inside. "You can stay here."

Jet looked around for a minute before speaking up. "It looks like someone already lives here."

"Not anymore, you can have this room." Cynder said behind him. Jet turned to see Cynder taking some things out of the chest next to the wall.

"Wait, this is your room? I can't just take it from you."

"You aren't taking it from me; I'm giving it to you. I have another room to stay in now anyway." Cynder said before walking a few doors down. She knocked on a door near the end of the hall near the balcony. When it opened, Jet saw a flash of purple scales.

_The__purple__dragon__and__the__Terror__of__the__Skies__as__a__couple__… __This__city__is__going__to__be__indestructible__with__them__here.__Maybe__Torch__can__calm__down__for__a__change._ Jet thought as he walked toward the large green bed. _If__he__can__stay__calm,__maybe__I__won__'__t__have__to__kick__his__ass._ Jet smiled at the thought and fell asleep in his new room.

Spyro helped Cynder find a spot for everything she cared to bring with her.

"So the guardians don't care?" he asked.

"It was actually their idea. We had every room filled and Jet still needed one. When we got back to the citadel I asked Terrador what to do and this was the only answer he could think of."

"Terrador said that? We get a room together and haven't had to train in forever! Since when did he become so lenient?"

Cynder smiled. "I really don't care but as long as he keeps it up I'll be happy. Do you think we should go see Casille now?"

"Sure. I gave her a room nearby." He said as he walked out of their room with Cynder in tow.

The two walked over to Casille's room to find the dragoness curled up on the bed. When the door opened, she opened her eyes a little.

"You actually showed up?" she asked.

"Of course we did." Spyro answered.

The dragoness took a second to talk again. "Thank you. You have no idea just how many people avoid me. It feels good to actually have people that overlook the whole wingless, three tailed thing."

"What about Flame and Ember? They seem like pretty good friends." Cynder asked.

"Yeah they are, but two compared to fifty isn't much. There are a few others in the village that are glad to have me around so it's around ten to fifty but still…"

"It's alright. You got us now. You'll make more friends soon enough." Spyro smiled.

Casille smiled and got off the bed. "Thanks guys. I'm going to sleep soon but I hope I get to see you tomorrow."

"Alright, goodnight Casille." The black dragoness said before she and Spyro got up and walked back into the hall.

"You too guys."

When the sun rose, Jet ended up being woke up by its light, a down side to having a window on the east side of your room. He climbed off of the bed and walked to the door, where he heard Cynder and Spyro talking on the other side. He opened the door and the two stood up.

"Hey Jet, there's something we wanted to ask you." Spyro started. "Could you help me and Cynder out with training? There isn't exactly a shadow guardian to learn from in Warfang so I haven't even gotten the basics yet."

"You haven't learned anything from watching Cynder?" Jet asked, rubbing his eyes.

Spyro shook his head. "No, she tried but I just can't get it right. The guardians say I should be able to use it and I have made a little, but not really enough to use."

"Alright I can help you then. If there isn't a shadow user around here other than the three of us, I could help both of you."

"So you have shadow mastered?" Cynder asked.

"I would assume so, seeing how you have to master shadows before you can use-" Jet said before catching himself.

"Use what?" Spyro asked.

"It's nothing." Jet started. "So where and when?"

"Well there's an area outside where we usually train. It's just outside the temple wall. We are usually free before sundown." Cynder said, still a little skeptical about Jet's pause.

"Sounds good." Jet said.

The two thanked him before walking toward the stairs. Jet looked down the hall to the balcony. A grin crept to his face and he sprinted down the hallway. He jumped from the balcony and spread his wings to slow the fall.

He explored the city near the citadel and saw many moles and cheetahs, but only a few dragons.

_Are we really in this deep? I can't believe Malefor came this close to wiping us out._

He walked around the corner to see a large open area that seemed to have taken a lot of damage.

_So here's where I need to be later._

Before he could walk away, something landed on his back and forced him to the ground. As he got up, he heard a voice belonging to a young dragoness.

"I-I'm so sorry, I was leaning on the rail and lost my balance. Are you alright?" she asked, sounding nervous.

Jet looked up to see a white dragoness standing over him. "Yeah, I'm fine. What about you?"

The white dragoness nodded and helped Jet stand back up. "I'm fine."

"My second day in Warfang and I end up a landing pad," The shadow dragon said. "Feels like home already!" He looked at the dragoness again, this time noticing her form. With three tails and no wings, Jet found he was unable to stop staring.

"So is this the part where you run away and we never talk again?" the dragoness asked after a while.

Jet shook his head. "Of course not, why would I do that?"

"You wouldn't be the first." She said. "It always starts with staring, we talk for a while, they say they'll see me later and it never happens." The dragoness turned to walk away.

"Well we have something in common then." Jet said, getting the white dragoness to stop. "At least you get to be ignored though. I end up with a lot of people at my throat when they see black scales. Just because of my race they think I'm going to go around and be a second 'Terror of the Skies'."

"You don't really seem capable enough to take on Cynder, no offence."

"I don't know many who could. After Spyro freed her she became almost as strong as a purple dragon herself. I know when I'm beat." Jet laughed.

"Well who are you?" the white dragoness asked.

"My name's Jet, and you are?"

"I'm Casille. Maybe I'll see you again soon." She said before she turned to walk away.

"Wait. Could you show me around? I barely know a thing about Warfang."

"I'm sorry but I'm still new here too. I wouldn't be much help."

"Then how about coming with me? We could both learn a little about the city and I could really use someone to talk to."

"A-Alright."

The two new friends began walking through the streets of Warfang, just talking and laughing together about anything and everything. When Casille had a moment she would look at the sky. After she saw it was almost noon, she thought about heading back to the citadel.

"Think it's about time we headed back?" Casille asked.

"I guess, now which way was it?" The two looked around but they were too far from the citadel to see it anymore.

"I'm not sure." Casille started. "How about you fly up and look for it?"

Jet saw an opportunity to make this grounded dragoness happy for a little while and decided to take it.

"Hey, want to see something fun?" Jet asked, making Casille give him a confused look.

"I guess. What do you have in mind?"

Jet jumped on the dragoness' back and put his front paws around her mid-section. "Hold on!" he said, before flapping his wings a few times and lifting off. Casille was shocked, but enjoying feeling weightless. "There it is." Jet said, motioning toward the temple. He began to fly toward it until Casille spoke up.

"Before we go back, could we fly around for a little while?" she pleaded. Jet smiled and agreed. He did a few tricks to make the trip more entertaining.

Jet flew straight up after one of his flips. Casille was ok for a few seconds but began to worry when they started picking up speed. She looked to see that he was no longer beating his wings, but instead they were coated with black shadowfire that seemed to propel them skyward.

They were now far above Warfang, and even the clouds when Jet's wings returned to normal and folded around the white dragoness. Casille was panicking as gravity quickly pulled them straight down. She saw Jet's eyes closed as they fell and began panicking even more, causing her to squirm around. "Hold still." The black dragon said very calmly. She listened to Jet and saw the ground getting closer by the second.

Within seconds of crashing into the cobblestone street, Jet snapped his wings open and rolled over. His wings caught the air immediately and they came within inches of the ground as Jet rolled over and gently glided to a street near the citadel with Casille lying on his back.

"That was amazing!" the white dragoness cheered.

"Do you just like sitting on me? You're on my back for the second time today!" Jet laughed, catching her attention.

She had so much adrenaline rushing through her that she failed to notice she had ended up on top of him just as she did when she fell off of her balcony. Blushing, she quickly got off of him and helped him up.

"Thank you so much. I can't believe you would do all that for me."

"Believe me, it was no problem at all." Jet started. "Do you think we can hang out more tomorrow? I'm supposed to meet Cynder and Spyro for training soon." Casille nodded and walked up to her room while Jet flew around to the east side of the temple going back to the training area he saw earlier.

Casille was on her balcony again, being careful not to fall this time when she saw Jet approach Spyro and Cynder who were already there.

_So what else can you do?_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"Ok Cynder, are you ready?" Jet started. "We'll start off sparring so I can see how good you are with shadows already. Spyro, I want you to keep an eye on her for anything I miss and just try to learn by watching us for now. If I'm still conscious at the end and you still can't get it, I'll see what I can do." The two nodded before Jet and Cynder began their sparring match using only their shadow element at first, then moved on to full contact.

Casille was watching Jet from her balcony as he fought Cynder and gave her orders on how to improve. Her adrenaline had mostly worn off and she began to feel extremely tired as she watched the black clouds of shadowfire scatter in the training area below. She began to doze off, recalling what had happened during her first flight.

"You need to focus Cynder. The shadows can hide you, but when you come out to attack you have to make sure it's the last hit or they can strike back." Jet said after shrugging off one of Cynder's shadow strikes. "Don't give them the chance to fight back."

"Well I was holding back because I didn't want to hurt you." The black dragoness smirked.

"Then stop," Jet commanded. "Treat me as you would if I was really your enemy. I don't want you hold back unless one of us is in life threatening danger."

The former queen of darkness tried her shadow cloak again and Jet closed his eyes. Now invisible, Cynder ran over to him. She got close to his right side to try another shadow strike when she stopped. Jet opened his eyes and blasted a condensed ball of shadowfire to the ground, making a shockwave that knocked the dragoness out of her cloak and sent her flying back a few feet.

"Invisibility is practically useless if I can still hear you!"

Cynder jumped towards him and tried to attack with her claws and tail, but Jet's size gave him an advantage in physical combat. He grabbed both of Cynder's forelegs with his left paw and her tail with his right. In one fluid movement, Jet pushed her paws down and pulled her tail over her, making her flip past him.

She stood back up and exhaled a wave of shadowfire at the black dragon. Jet thought he saw something in the attack and was too distracted to dodge it. Instead, he quickly used a wave of his own shadowfire. Cynder's began pushing Jet's back, but Jet boosted the power in his. Spyro saw Cynder's get slowly pushed back at her before she stopped her attack and rolled out of the way.

"Try harder!"

Cynder nodded and let a larger wave of shadowfire loose from her maw. Jet did the same but his was formed less like a black fog as shadowfire normally does, but was instead a stream of purple, red, and black flames. Spyro watched how Jet's blast began to effortlessly rip through Cynder's and threw the dragoness to the ground. As soon as she fell, Spyro and Jet both ran to the downed dragoness with worried looks.

"You're going to teach me that even if I have to beat it out of you." She said as Spyro helped her up.

Jet stood a few feet from the two dragons and his eyes focused on a small trail of blood coming from his new student's mouth.

_I__'__m__glad__she__'__s__not__hurt,__but__how__did__she__even__stay__conscious__from__that?_"Y-Yeah, just not anytime soon… it takes a lot of energy to pull that off. Let's call it a day." He said, his eyes fixed on her blood.

Cynder caught Jet looking at the blood coming from her maw on the side opposite of Spyro and cleaned it off before the purple dragon could see it.

"What about teaching me?" Spyro asked. "I really want to learn how to do that."

"Maybe later. As I said, that move takes a lot of power. I'm tired already." He lied. Jet was still in top fighting condition, but he lost control of a power he had mastery of and was scared to do it again. Spyro nodded and led Cynder back into the temple.

_How__could__I__have__done__that?__That__could__have__killed__her__…_ His thoughts were interrupted by a soft voice calling his name. He turned around but didn't see anyone.

"Jet…" Jet looked up to where the voice came from and saw white scales on the balcony above him. He smiled as he remembered the only white dragon that knows him.

"Casille…" Jet smiled to himself as he flew to the balcony.

He got up to the balcony and saw the dragoness asleep. He turned to fly off and go back to his room when a cold gust of air blew by and made him decide to stay inside.

The black dragon walked to the door but stopped when he heard his name called again. Casille was still curled up on the balcony, but Jet noticed how she began to shake a little. He got close to the sleeping dragoness and called her name, but she did not wake up. He tried again and got the same response.

After multiple failed attempts to wake her, he positioned himself under Casille's body and lifted her off of the cold stone floor. He gently set her down on her bed and she curled up again. The black dragon walked back to the door and turned to see her one more time.

Finally, he walked into the hallway and found his room down the hall from the one belonging to the two heroes. As he climbed into his own bed, he found himself thinking about the white dragoness but knew he was forgetting something important. Jet shrugged the thought aside and slowly went to sleep.

"Spyro, I'm fine, believe me." Cynder told the purple dragon who was in bed with his wing draped over her body.

"I do believe you. It's just that attack looked really strong and I don't want to see you hurt." She giggled when she heard Spyro say those words.

"Well I'm not hurt Spyro, don't worry. I helped you take out Malefor and I seriously doubt Jet is as strong as him."

Spyro nodded and gave Cynder a kiss before he went to sleep. When Cynder was sure the purple dragon was asleep, a tear welled up in her eyes. It was the only time she had ever lied to her mate and she regretted it, but she needed him not to worry. She was sore from the battle. She had only been hurt this badly once, when Spyro's convexity fury knocked her out when she was still evil. Her entire body shuddered with a quick jolt of pain as her paw traced over the spot on her chest where she had been hit. She leaned her head on Spyro's and quickly went to sleep, trying to ignore the pain left by Jet's unintentional blast.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry my last chapter was so short. I ran out of ideas but I was lucky enough to find some for this one. Well, here's chapter four. Please R&R.**

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**Chapter Four**

Casille was walking out of the front door of the temple in Warfang, still deep in thought about the black dragon that stuck in her mind. She snapped out of her thoughts and found herself at the front gate that was breached by Malefor's army. Moles were all over the place, carrying materials or rebuilding the damaged and destroyed structures through Warfang. The white dragoness could only stare at these strange little creatures as she had never seen them before yesterday, so when one addressed her she was easily startled.

"Excuse me miss," a nearby mole started with a heavy accent, startling Casille enough to make her jump a little. "Would you take this to Mason please? I have some other things to take care of." He asked, setting down a box about as large as he was. She nodded as the mole pointed Mason out to the dragoness.

She pushed the box along the cobblestone with her muzzle and tapped the head mole on the shoulder with one of her tails.

"Oh thank you. Your friends are up there." He said, pointing one of his paws straight up.

The dragoness got confused and looked up and saw two of her friends from the village. "Chasm! Aeris!" She yelled to get their attention.

Chasm was a dark green, adult dragon with brown underside, three blunt horns, and tailblade in the shape of a spearhead.

Aeris was his mate. She was a slender, grey-blue wind dragoness who practically raised Casille like she was her own, with Chasm as the perfect father figure. Her underside and dual horns were a light blue and she lacked a tailblade.

"Casille!" the wind dragoness cried as she landed beside her foster daughter. Chasm finished lifting up a large stone block for the much smaller moles and joined the two on the ground.

"So… are you…liking Warfang?" the earth dragon said between breaths.

The younger white dragoness nodded. "A lot actually. So are you guys helping rebuild?"

"We figured that since they are letting us live here, the least we could do is help them get the city back on its feet." Aeris said.

The three began talking about what had happened since they arrived to Warfang up until the point where Jet came into play. Casille grew silent as she remembered their flight over the city and how much at home she felt in the black dragon's company.

"Is something wrong?"

Casille snapped out of her thoughts and looked back up to her foster parents. Chasm was still panting from the enormous weight he had carried and Aeris was just looking at her half expectantly.

She began to tell them about Jet and the two began to seem happy that Casille found some dragons so accepting of her… until she told them of the dragon's element.

"A shadow dragon…" Chasm said under his breath, barely even audible.

"Is something wrong with that?" The white dragoness had a quizzical look on her face.

"Well, we don't dislike him…" Aeris started. "But we are a little concerned." She told Casille about a long history of shadow dragons that she gathered from the Warfang library. "…also, shadow dragons are extremely prone to corruption. Malefor was very gifted with the shadow element, as was Cynder, and look what happened to them."

"But Cynder was being controlled; she actually helped the new purple dragon beat Malefor after he saved her from his corruption."

"But she was corrupted to begin with; it could happen to Jet too… We are just worried." The grey-blue dragoness replied. "Just keep an eye on him alright?"

Casille nodded and looked at the ground until she heard wings beating. The three looked up to see a black and navy dragon heading toward a group of cheetahs who were helping rebuild the higher floors of some buildings. "That's him now!" Casille exclaimed, nearly ready to jump up after him.

Her foster parents looked up and saw the black dragon as well as their jaws hung open.

"What's wrong?" Casille asked her foster parents, making their attention come back.

"I-It's nothing." An obvious lie from Chasm.

Casille knew he was lying, but she figured it would be best to leave it alone. She hugged her foster parents before running into the bottom floor of the building Jet flew to.

"A little higher." The pale-furred cheetah ordered. Jet lifted with more power in his hind legs as he helped lift the heavy torch so it could hang from the ceiling. "Alright it's secure."

Jet backed up to see the pale cheetah on the rafters and the torch hanging on them. He dropped back on all fours and watched the big cat jump from wall to wall to get to the floor. "Now we just need a fire dragon to-"

Jet saw where the cheetah was going already. He hovered up beside the torch and breathed a searing stream of shadow fire on the torch, making a black flame ignite. He landed as the cheetahs got to see black fire for the first time apparently.

"A little showy isn't it?" a female voice behind him said.

He turned to see the wingless dragoness with a devious look on her face.

"Casille? How long were you watching?"

"About five seconds or so..." She lied. She actually got to this floor in time to watch the black dragon lift the heavy torch.

"So why are you up here? I mean- it's good to see you but why in the construction site?" the black dragon asked.

"Actually I was talking to my parents and I saw you fly up here, and I felt like talking to you for a bit."

"Your parents? Well I'd like to meet them someti-"

"NO!" the white dragoness cut him off. Loud enough to catch the attention of the cheetahs still at work. Her face lit up with a blush, evident under her pure white scales.

"Um, are you alright?" The white dragoness merely nodded.

"I'm fine, but can I talk with you alone…" she whispered.

The two headed back to the temple and Jet showed Casille to his room.

"I'm sorry but there was just something I had to know. My parents told me about the shadow dragon history and how most shadow dragons are easily corrupted… The thing is, I feel different near you and it makes me want to stay around, but if you got corrupted and turned evil… I just don't know if I would be able to handle it…"

Jet knew it would be tough to answer, but he had to. "Yes. You know how all elements have an enhanced form, like the bond between electricity and lightning? The same bond as fire and light?" The white dragoness nodded in response. "Well the enhanced version of shadow is darkness. Malefor, Cynder, even Spyro and myself; we have all been exposed to it. Malefor had control over it; Cynder was controlled by it, as is Spyro. My case is a little different…"

Jet held out his left paw and dark lightning began to run along his forearm and merging to form an orb of pure darkness above his paw. "I have control over it like Malefor, but it is limited until I can master it…" the dark orb began to fade and the purple lightning on his forearm turned to black flames before disappearing. "When I was training with Cynder yesterday, I must have used too much power at once, but whatever the cause, I accidentally blasted her with dark fire."

The white dragoness remained silent and Jet lifted her head with his paw. "I understand why your parents are cautious about me, but I assure you, I will not let myself be consumed by it."

Almost immediately, Casille's head shot forward and her lips connected with Jet's, but he pulled back after a few seconds. It took a second for her to realize what she had just done and she began apologizing.

"I-I'm really sorry, I don't know what came over me but I… I'm really sorry."

Jet just looked down at his paws in front of him and in a low tone, he said, "You really surprised me,"

Just as Casille was about to apologize again, Jet returned her favor with a kiss of his own. "I said you surprised me, I never said I didn't like it."

"UP HERE FLAME!"

The crimson dragon looked up as his sparring partner took him to the ground by diving on his back.

The two dragons rolled around in a flurry of claws and fangs before Flame threw Spyro across the training circle. There was moment where there was no action, followed by two fire blasts colliding in the dead center of the two.

Spyro then helped his unconscious friend back inside the temple.

"Your two for two now huh Spyro? The legends of purple dragons weren't joking."

"Took you that long to find that out?" the dragons collapsed in the main foyer laughing hard.

"Do you think he will like it?" Cynder asked a certain pink dragoness while showing her a set of bracers.

"Why ask me? He's your mate-to-be isn't he?"

"Well, you have known him a lot longer than me; I figured you would know what he liked. Ever since I met Spyro, it's always been fighting. Whether it was against each other or Malefor, we never really got time to do or talk about anything else."

"Well then give it to him and find out. If it's from you then he will love it."

"I guess you're right. Do you hear something?"

The two dragonesses leaned up against a door they were walking by and heard the guardian's voices.

"Volteer confirmed it, the largest part of Malefor's remaining army are going to attack. It's about three times larger than the one last week…" Cyril said before silence filled the room. Terrador, what are we going to do?" the ice guardian asked.

"There only thing we can do. Let the new generation know Warfang is no longer safe…"

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**And that's my fourth chapter of my first story. I noticed I have been focusing a lot on the OCs but that is only because Spyro and Cynder had several games where you got to learn about their mannerisms, personality, ect. In chapter five I will be more balanced with the four (maybe six if I put Flame and Ember in more.) main characters.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry it took a while but I had graduation tests to study for. (Excelled on all four parts, one with Honors so I'm excited.) Here's a longer chapter as an I'm sorry.**

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**Chapter Five**

"WHAT?" Spyro cried as the guardians had told him about the discovery of the army.

"We are sorry, but there is a large force of Malefor's remaining army who is coming to Warfang, Volteer went to check for himself…" Terrador solemnly said.

"HOW COME YOU DIDN'T TELL ME EARLIER?"

"We wanted to tell you, but-" Cyril started before the purple dragon cut him off.

"WE WERE STRONG ENOUGH TO TAKE OUT THEIR LEADER, BUT YOU DON'T TRUST US TO TAKE DOWN WHAT'S LEFT OF HIS ARMY?" the purple dragon roared.

"We held off the last attack, and now there won't be a golem to help them. They should be easier now so why have all of us relocated?" Cynder asked.

"Because this portion of his army is three times larger than the last one. Do you know just how many lives were lost in the last attack?" Terrador retorted. The two dragons were silent.

"We need the two of you to take your generation to Avalar; Prowlus has agreed to keep you there until this battle is over." The earth guardian finished while still looking at the floor.

"We just need you two to let the younger dragons and anyone who cannot fight out of Warfang, the rest will need to stay and fight." Cyril said.

"Fine… but I want the truth right from the start from now on, got it?" the purple dragon said with a commanding tone than even Terrador refused to argue with. The purple dragon's glare helped as well. The only one who wasn't surprised at his outburst was Cynder who had seen Spyro at his worst, when he transformed, and it seemed to almost come back.

"Please calm down Spyro." The black dragoness pleaded when she saw Spyro's purple scales begin to darken just like before.

Until now, Cynder had been the only one to see Spyro's dark form aside from the golden dragonfly, Sparx. She was also the only one who could manage to reach him in this state as she had calmed him after both Malefor's release on the night of eternal darkness and when he transformed again after Ignitus' sacrifice.

The hero's scales returned to their original purple color and his normally kind nature returned. "I'm sorry Cynder, I almost lost it again."

The guardians were at a loss. They had never seen Spyro act like he had and none of them knew about his dark side. Sparx had never told any of them either. It was the one thing the dragonfly knew that he didn't tell anyone and everyone about.

The two dragons decided to call as many dragons as possible to the temple's courtyard instead of flying through the city telling everyone.

Every single young dragon looked to their parents as if it would be the last time they would see them again, which for many was very possible. After many heart wrenching goodbyes, the only ones left in the courtyard were the younger generation, Jet's closest friend Voltaria, (the lightning dragoness who came to the city with him) and Casille's foster parents.

Voltaria flew off with one last glance at her shadow dragon friend and headed toward the main gate where all the adult dragons, including the guardians, were preparing to defend the city. Casille's foster parents flew off as well, but stayed long enough to see the shadow dragon comforting their daughter. Jet had gently placed a wing over the sobbing dragoness who rested her head on his shoulder. Her tears softened, but never really stopped. Seeing this made her parents think a little harder about shadow dragons as they flew away.

After everyone had gathered what they wanted to bring with them, Spyro and Cynder led the group to Avalar with Sparx sitting on the purple dragon's head. Spyro had a handful of scrolls on advanced element control, Cynder had the same but with her own strange elements, Casille had a single silver colored book, Jet took nothing, as did Flame and Ember.

They group got to the wall and took flight. Throughout the long trip, the only sounds that could be heard by Spyro and Cynder were the beating wings and a few sobs from the crowd behind them. About sixty young dragons came while the rest stayed behind.

Spyro and Cynder were in front followed by Flame and Ember who were talking to a light blue dragoness they did not recognize, then a lot of dragons they hadn't gotten the chance to meet yet. In the back of the group was Jet who was carrying the three-tailed white dragoness.

Casille was lying on Jet's back between his wings with her front legs around his neck, thinking about when she would get to see Chasm and Aeris again, if she ever got to. The thought of not getting to see her foster parents again entered her mind and made her sorrow deepen and caused her tears to reform.

"Please don't cry." Jet said. "There is nothing to worry about. You will see them again, I promise."

Without warning, Jet's body transformed into a pure black cloud of shadow and Casille fell through him. Just as she fell out of the cloud, Jet's body rematerialized with his arms around her. The white dragoness was now facing up toward him, having rolled over during her quick fall.

"I will keep you safe no matter what happens." The black dragon said.

After hearing this, Casille began crying, but for different reasons this time. The dragon she cared so much for was carrying her away from danger and trying his best to keep her happy.

_Why did all of this have to happen?_ Spyro thought. _Malefor is gone, Cynder is with us, shouldn't we be at peace by now? There's no other dragon capable of leading an army of this size is there?_

"Spyro?"

Spyro was broken out of his thoughts by Cynder who was giving him a curious look.

"Is everything ok? You seem like you aren't entirely here." She said.

"I'm fine, I was just thinking about something…"

"Anything that we can help with?" a new voice asked.

Flame, Ember, and the blue dragoness who was with them were flying closer to them now. The voice didn't sound like either of them so Spyro assumed it was the new dragoness.

"I doubt it. So who are you?" the purple dragon asked.

"I'm Celestia. Ember's sister." she said.

Spyro looked at the new dragoness' features. She was built much like Cynder but a bit longer from nose to tailblade. On her head, in the same spot where Spyro's were, stood two horns that curved backwards slightly. They were clear blue and looked as if made of ice but anyone who actually felt them would know they were still the same as anyone else's horns. Her scales were a light blue that blended in with the sky behind her. The membranes in her wings were unusual, having a pattern of several small pieces of membrane overlapping each other, and had a bluish-gray tint, as did her eyes.

"Well it's nice to meet you. I'm-"

"Spyro, I already know, as does most of the realm." She joked, trying and failing to lighten the mood.

After several hours of flying, the valley came into view and Spyro led the group down to a clearing where he noticed two cheetahs. "Hunter! Meadow!" the purple dragon said as he and Cynder landed in front of them. It was the first time during the entire day that he smiled.

In front of them stood a gold-furred cheetah with a brown cloak and a bow on his back. Beside him was a darker colored cheetah leaning on a tree branch he used to support his bad leg.

"Spyro, Cynder, it is good to see you again. I just wish it could be under better circumstances…" Hunter said solemnly.

"Me too." Spyro said while the dragons following them came down. Some landed, others collapsed out of exhaustion.

"Do you have enough space for everyone?" he asked.

"We should, although some might have to live with two or three in one house." Meadow said as he hobbled toward the dragons.

Jet had just landed at this point. Casille may have been very light, but the weight of two dragons slowed him down drastically. Upon landing, Jet set Casille down near the front of the crowd and stood next to her, letting his tired wings droop.

"We do not have enough room in the village for all of you, so Prowlus asked us to build another. It's amazing, just a week ago he had the two of you shackled and now he's building homes for you." Hunter laughed.

Casille's eyes moved around, taking in the sights of the valley. Every inch of ground was covered with grass or trees, there was a fast moving river running through the middle, and the creatures that lived here were so pure compared to the savage animals that used to attack her village when she was little. Eventually, her eyes landed on the wounded cheetah's leg.

Something began stirring inside of her and she lost control of her body. She slowly walked toward the cheetah but she couldn't stop. She guessed this was her instincts making her body act by itself as the feeling inside of her grew stronger. All eyes were on the strange dragoness at this point, watching her inch her way toward Meadow, not once looking away from his leg.

The feeling began moving from her chest to the back of her throat as she got near the cheetah and without warning; she opened her mouth and used her element for the first time in her life. A fine mist came from her maw and covered Meadow's leg. It may have lasted only a minute, but made Meadow drop his crutch-like branch.

Gasps were heard as Meadow's leg held up its own weight without the brace. Whatever Casille had done had healed the cheetah's leg completely. Once she got control of her body again, she looked just as surprised as everyone else. "What was that?" Cynder asked in disbelief.

"I-I don't know." Casille said, letting her nervous demeanor slip through again.

Almost everyone was now crowding her, asking her what she did, or what it was, or how she did it. The only ones who weren't hovering around her were Spyro, Cynder, Hunter, Meadow, Flame, and Jet. Casille started drawing back to escape the curious crowd. Jet noticed this and stepped in. He ran to the crowd and jumped over all of them, landing between them and the white dragoness.

"BACK OFF!" he roared. "Now if everyone can calm down for a second maybe we can find out later. She doesn't know what she did either."

The crowd stopped after the black dragon scared them, but soon was closing in again. A dragon like Casille had never been seen before, and the only known black dragon up until now was Cynder so seeing Jet stirred their curiosity even more.

Jet was getting even more annoyed and thought to slip away with Casille unnoticed. _If they want to see what I can do…_ he thought before breathing a column of shadowfire straight up into the sky, making the crowd look up. When they looked down again, the two dragons were gone. Everyone was shocked except for Spyro and Cynder who had seen and done this move several times in their adventures.

Jet and Casille hid in a shadow cloak that Jet made after his little distraction and were moving in the shadows of the trees to get away. Once they were far enough as to not be heard, Casille spoke up.

"Thank you Jet, I couldn't stand that much attention."

"I know what you mean. It's nice to be noticed but that much attention is enough to drive anyone insane."

The two laughed for a bit and stayed hidden by the trees even after Jet released the shadow cloak. They passed the time by just talking about anything they could think of. Every now and again Jet would look back to see what was going on. The dragons were in small groups just talking to each other, most likely about Casille, while Spyro and Cynder were talking with the cheetahs.

Once, Jet looked back and saw a look of confusion on Spyro's face, anger on Cynder's, and horror on everyone else's. He was about to come out and see what happened but stopped when several dragons jumped out of the way of a small fireball. The explosion that followed was powerful enough to knock some of them down still and caused the ground to ignite. Spyro, Cynder, Flame, and a few other dragons their age flew in the direction the shot came from while the younger ones were quickly led through some trees nearby by the cheetahs.

Jet and Casille got up and ran into the clearing to help any way they could. They looked up and saw some wyverns carrying several crossbow wielding orcs. The dragons that did not retreat were having an all out war against the invading creatures. Jet looked to Casille who just nodded, knowing the black dragon wanted to help. He took off while the dragoness went over to help the younger dragons escape.

"What are these things doing here?" Cynder asked before using a cyclone to blow several orcs and grublins off of their wyvern mounts. The purple dragon beside her froze the wings of a few, causing them to fall to the ground as well. "That doesn't matter; we just need to get rid of them."

Spyro looked around and saw his friend Flame take out many targets at once with an airborne fire fury. He could only watch in awe as this young dragon's fury was nearly as strong as his former mentor, Ignitus. Not far away, he saw Ember and her sister Celestia unleash fire and ice furies together, causing a devastating combination.

"Spyro, look out!" the black dragoness cried in vain. A large wyvern, possibly elite, was already within inches of the purple dragon. He turned to see the creature bear its fangs and lunge for his throat. He closed his eyes and waited for the pain to come but instead, he heard Cynder gasp.

He opened his eyes and saw the elite wyvern still over him, but he had translucent black, chain-like energy ensnaring its neck and arms. He looked to the source and saw the black and navy shadow dragon with the opposite end of the chain wrapped in his claws. In one quick motion, he swung the hostage wyvern as a wrecking ball, also snaring other targets in the process. Once he thought he had enough, he made the black chains burst, along with the enemies it caught.

Cynder could only watch her friend and shadow instructor as he mercilessly decimated the enemies one by one. It wasn't easy however; Jet had taken several blows during the beginning of the fight and was getting weaker as it dragged on. This wasn't some small group of enemies, it was an entire battalion. A handful of adolescent dragons against these numbers did not help their morale much.

Another large wyvern took him by surprise and dragged its claws across the dragon's chest. He roared in pain and sunk his fangs into the wyvern's neck before blasting it with shadowfire. The creature died and fell to the ground. Jet held his chest and felt the wyvern had done far more damage than any normal one would. He began to get dizzy from blood loss, but was able to look around and see everyone was too busy with their own fights to notice, and he wanted it to stay that way. He refused to make everyone worry for his life when theirs is in just as much danger.

Jet thought he heard someone call out to him, but when he looked up from his wound, he was completely surrounded. He built up as much power as he could, and released it when the group attacked. Shadows emanated from his body in tendrils and began to move and grow, as if they were alive. The shadows stopped all of the enemies in their tracks, while also gaining attention from his allies. They watched as the shadows appeared to have physical properties and began to pierce through many of the attackers. A ball of shadowfire encased Jet and with a roar, he made it explode. Countless enemies didn't just die, but vanished as the black power blasted through them, leaving nothing in its wake. The ones that missed the blunt of the attack began to mindlessly attack each other instead. The shadow dragon exhaled and his dizziness intensified, causing him to black out in mid-air.

* * *

Casille had just finished helping the little dragons get out with a cheetah on either end of the group. Hunter led in front while Meadow stayed in the back to stop anything that followed. She heard a roar and looked up to see Jet dispatch a wyvern that had apparently gotten close enough to land a heavy blow. He hovered for a second and Casille began worrying if he was really too hurt to notice the large force surrounding him.

"JET!" she screamed, trying to get his attention. He looked up for a second and began to build his power. Everyone, including Casille far below, watched as they got to witness a rare shadow fury firsthand, sending death and chaos through the enemies' ranks. She smiled at the thought that her crush would be alright, but it quickly vanished as the dragon lost consciousness and fell from the sky.

She ran as fast as she could, trying to get to where Jet was going to land. She was stopped by several small, ugly, green creatures that jumped from the ground in front of her. "Get out of my way!" she roared. The creatures were not even phased by the dragoness and began closing in on her.

The delay worked. Casille watched in horror as the dragon hit the ground with a sickening noise, and the peaceful dragoness' anger flared. Her tails lashed out, destroying the grublins easily with a flurry of slashes, stabs, and crushes. She never thought three tail variations would help, but she had proven herself wrong as twelve grublins died within five seconds.

She ran to the shadow dragon's body and tried to wake him up. "Please don't leave me Jet, I need you!" she cried with tears streaming from her eyes. "Come on Jet! We won! Please, wake up…" She looked to the dragon in her arms as his breathing stopped.

She opened her maw and used the healing mist she used earlier, hoping to have the same effect. His body began to heal, but Casille didn't have the power to sustain it. The mist died down revealing the mortally wounded dragon it was attempting to heal. She held her head down and put it to Jet's neck, crying harder than most of the on looking could have ever thought.

Cynder looked over to Spyro, thinking of how bad she would feel if this had happened to her purple dragon. She knew she had to help somehow. She walked up behind the white dragoness and placed a paw on her shoulder and sent every last bit of magic she had left to her. Feeling this, she looked up at the black dragoness with bloodshot eyes. Again, she felt magic being given to her. She looked over her other shoulder to see Spyro doing the same.

The mist dragoness looked down and tried healing Jet again. When it dissipated, his body was back in top shape, but his chest remained still and his eyes closed. She laid her head on his chest and the crying continued for a while. She only stopped when she felt a bone-like form on her face. She looked up and watched the navy blue, scythe shaped tailblade wipe the tears from her face.

"I promised I would be here for you so please, don't cry."

Casille looked back to the dragon's face as his dark eyes opened to meet hers. When they did, she buried her head to his neck and began crying for joy as the black dragon's wings covered her.

* * *

**You didn't honestly think I would kill off my favorite character did you? I'm sure you see the new character Celestia. She belongs to my younger brother Mikey and he asked me to work her in the story and I already know what to do. I worked really hard on this chapter so I hoped you like it. I'll try to be faster with my updates. Please R&R, I could use any advice at this point.**


	6. Chapter 6

**This chapter just didn't want to be written but it's finally finished so have fun.**

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Chapter Six

Casille was overjoyed to see her shadow dragon alive. Although he slipped into unconsciousness almost immediately after being healed, she stayed beside him to be sure. The dragons that had stayed behind to fight were now either tending to their own injuries, or left to get some crystals for everyone. Spyro, Cynder, and Flame were the only ones around at this point. The legendary purple dragon almost collapsed on the spot from his wounds from some of the larger foes. Cynder was mostly unhurt, but completely drained of her power as she lay beside Spyro. Flame's incredible fury attack had left him unable to move afterwards as the blast had completely drained him.

"_What was that?"_ Cynder thought. _"He was using some of the most incredible shadow attacks I've ever seen… I guess I could do those too with enough practice. He better teach me those."_ She looked over to the resting shadow dragon and smiled at the thought of being able to wipe out that many enemies at once without her dark fury element. His eyes would open for a few seconds and then close again and his breathing slowed. If Casille hadn't been able to heal him, he would have been dead.

"_And just what is Casille's power?"_ She thought before Spyro moved a bit, snapping her back to reality. She looked down to the purple dragon whose bleeding seemed to have stopped. The black dragoness gently rubbed against his side to calm him without reopening any wounds.

They had used everything they had to stop this force from attacking the young dragons as hunter and meadow lead them off and it looked like they had won, too bad they were incredibly mistaken.

In unison, about a dozen orcs rose from the ground, all wielding a variety of weapons. Cynder stood up and got ready to fight until she collapsed. Flame was still unconscious, and Spyro could only watch as he was too weakened to help. Casille covered Jet as much as she could, but without wings to shield his sides, it didn't help much.

Jet's eyes were opened just a sliver, but he could feel Casille trying to protect him. He tried to stand up, but fell back down exhausted. He became more alert when one got close enough and held his axe high over his head. As the creature brought the weapon down, a white, serrated tail slashed at its arms, making it drop the weapon.

Casille stood alone between the rest of the orcs and her friends, her tails flailing wildly and her claws digging into the ground beneath her. The orcs charged the white dragoness who refused to move. Once they got within a few feet, Casille struck back. The bladed tail took out two orcs instantly; the spiked one stabbed one in the chest, and the clubbed one swung hard, taking out two at once. For a dragoness who had never been in a fight before that day, she was incredible.

At one point, she impaled one through its chest and swung him around to knock two more back. As well as she was doing, she could see more and more enemies coming from the ground. This was something she could not handle alone. The creatures surrounded her when instinct took over again, just as when she had healed Meadow's leg.

The still mysterious mist surrounded Casille, and then the entire battlefield. The mist around the white dragoness disappeared, along with the one who hid inside it. The orcs looked around, but the mist was too thick. Everything was silent as the injured dragons watched.

A scream was heard and everyone's attention was averted to a recently killed orc. The mist faded, but Casille was still nowhere in sight. Another scream sounded, they looked over to see another orc get slashed from behind.

Finally, a third orc died in the center of the crowd. Not a sound was made, but it was clear what was happening. The body never hit the ground as it was held up in the air by Casille's tail crushing its neck. The last few feet of the tail was the only thing able to be seen though. The mist had somehow made her completely invisible.

It soon faded though and the dragoness again glared at the enemies. She sunk her claws into one's side and the creature stood still as white mist flowed from its eyes and mouth. The mist coming from the orc grew thicker and his body began to grow. The mist condensed and huge ice spikes shot out of its body, killing him instantly. Casille turned to face the army ahead. They all charged her but each attempt ended in failure. Jet watched as the dragoness was devastating enemies with ease.

Cynder had jumped in by now and was viciously attacking with her claws, horns, and tailblade alongside the mist dragoness. The two females were quite a deadly pair, easily felling one enemy after another. This continued until a roar was heard nearby. The group looked over to see a crossbowman's bolt hit Cynder in the side, just behind her front shoulder.

Spyro watched with horror as Cynder was hit again, this time by the flat side of an axe, and was sent flying towards him. Casille regained control and rushed over to trying to heal her with the little energy she had left. Spyro stared at the approaching enemies with pure anger.

Despite his injuries, he stood up like nothing ever happened and his fierce eyes began to glow a pure white and his purple scales began to darken. A dark aura surrounded the normally kind and caring dragon as he drew closer to the mob of creatures. Cynder opened her eyes and watched the dragon she loved turn into the dark monstrosity again. She remembered how his personality was altered like this and turned him into a merciless killing machine, how it made him ruthlessly kill the ape king like he was nothing.

The dark dragon kept walking toward the army who seemed to experience fear for the first time, seeing as how they halted their advance and actually began backing away. One tried to charge Spyro swinging his axe as hard as he could. The axe merely stopped as it hit the dragon's aura as if it were solid. This dark Spyro grinned wickedly before opening his maw and blasted the creature with a beam of darkness imbued convexity at point blank range. The beam annihilated the orc instantly as well as the row of enemies that stood far behind him.

He stood there, looking at the remaining army with the same wicked smile. His blast had made the fear in their ranks sky rocket and they began to run away. The dragon didn't want that to happen though. He opened his maw again and swept the dark convexity beam across the field, destroying the entire army in a heartbeat. After he was done, he slammed his front paws on the ground, forcing a few orcs to the surface and he quickly did the same to them.

The dark dragon turned around, now locking his gaze on his own allies. He opened his maw and a ball of dark convexity began charging in the back of his throat.

"SPYRO!"

Cynder called out to the enraged purple dragon and he appeared to stop, if only for a moment. She called out again, this time getting closer to the legendary dragon. She felt her own darkness tug inside of her, pulling toward Spyro who was now only a few feet from her. The dragon was motionless, as if his mind was at war with the dark power inside his body.

She pressed her head against his and put her wings around him. His scales began to return to their purple color, but stopped halfway through. He stayed that way for a moment before the bright purple scales were visible again and his amethyst eyes returned, filled with tears. All of his wounds were healed as he returned, as if the dark form sped his recovery.

The other three watched as the pair stayed that way for what felt like forever, waiting to see if the monstrous, dark-scaled Spyro would return. To their relief, he retained his normal purple and gold pattern. The dark power may have healed him, but it still left him exhausted and made him collapse in front of Cynder.

"_Incredible," _Jet thought. _"That power was a bit much even for a purple dragon."_ His thoughts were interrupted when Casille laid her head back on his chest. He looked at her and watched as the beautiful dragoness went to sleep. The dragons came back soon and brought an enormous load of crystals, enough for everyone at least. After they landed, the crystals were divided to everyone.

Jet looked around and saw a few dragons tending to Spyro and Cynder, a few around him and Casille, and Ember and Celestia trying to wake Flame. Once everyone was able to move normally, they followed the path left by Meadow and Hunter. Spyro and Cynder were in front of the group and Cynder would try to coax Spyro into talking but he stayed silent, still ashamed of letting his dark power take over for the third time.

Casille was walking beside jet, but was barely paying attention. She still wondered how this mist element was able to take control of her for brief moments and the very interesting abilities it gave her. Being forced to leave Warfang, coming to Avalar and getting attacked almost immediately, and nearly losing the purple dragon to darkness, it wasn't really a good day for anyone.

The group stopped when Hunter came into view in a clearing and they saw the village that the cheetahs had built for them. Hunter had his bow out and ready, apparently worried about more wyverns showing up until he saw the dragons.

"It's good to see that all of you are alright. Did any of them follow you?" the gold-furred cheetah asked. Spyro only shook his head, still not wanting to talk.

Hunter began to look concerned for his friend. "Is something wrong?"

"It's ok Hunter, I'll take care of it." Cynder said. "So does it matter which house we stay in?"

"Not really, but some of you might have to stay two or three to a house. We did not have much time or materials to work with…"

Cynder put a wing over Spyro and led him to the nearest building. The others all started walking around to find their own houses except for Celestia, Ember, and Flame who stayed to talk with Hunter. The sisters mostly talked with each other though while Flame was talking with the cheetah.

"So how are we going to get enough food and training? Practicing fire is difficult when you could end up burning down the village." The red dragon asked.

"There are many animals around to hunt for food and we will send anything we can spare. As for training, there is a cave not far from here that should be large enough to use. If you fly about as fast as Spyro then you should make it in about five minutes. I assume he will be busy teaching the young dragons with their elements."

"Probably, but I'm going to help any way I can. I might end up teaching fire if it can get some weight off his shoulders." The fire dragon said. "He's saved the entire planet, and just now he saved all of us, it's the least I can do."

"I'll teach ice then."

Flame turned to see Celestia smiling. She may not have been an ice master, but it wasn't new to her either. Spyro may still have to teach the advanced ice skills, but she could easily handle the rest.

"Thanks Hunter, I'll tell Spyro tomorrow if he's up to talking by then." Flame said before flying into the clustered buildings followed by Ember and Celestia.

* * *

In a house a few doors down from the savior's, Jet climbed into a large straw bed and fell on his side, still tired from the battle when he had to use the strongest shadow fury he had ever done. Casille climbed up with him and pushed her back up against the shadow dragon's navy blue chest and let his paws droop over her.

"I'm happy you're okay. I really thought that fall had killed you…" she said as tears began forming in her eyes.

"Actually… I think it did. You brought me back." Jet said as he pulled the white dragoness closer to him.

Casille's eyes shot open. "Y-you did?"

"I think so. I felt that impact and the next thing I see was a round door with a stone on either side engraved with black runes. The next thing I know, you're laying on me. I guess I literally owe you my life now don't I?"

Casille rolled over in his embrace to look him in the eye. "No, you don't owe me anything. I tried to heal you but I couldn't until Spyro and Cynder gave me most of the energy they had left. Besides, if it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't be talking to anyone or be able to do this." As soon as she finished her sentence, she pressed her maw to Jet's.

They stayed that way for nearly five minutes before they parted. Jet smiled before he put a wing around her and let his exhaustion drag him into a deep sleep. Casille looked at the black dragon covering her. _I hope he lives the long life he deserves. With everything he has been through, he should be as idolized as Spyro. At least I'll always see him like he should be._

* * *

"Spyro, please talk to me…" Cynder said. The two were sitting on the bed in their house and the purple dragon had his head on Cynder's shoulder as she tried to cheer him up. She had never seen him this put down before.

"Please Spyro, is there anything at all I can do?" she asked again.

Spyro only gave an answer Cynder wished she had never heard. "Only if you think you can kill me before I transform again…"

"W-what?" she asked in disbelief.

"The night before we met Flame and the others, what woke me up was a nightmare. I was on a mountain of dead bodies in a burning city I could only describe as Warfang. I looked over and saw my own dark form and I had killed you and when I changed today, I had even less control than the last two times and I almost attacked you, Jet, Casille, and Flame. I don't want you to ever get hurt because of me so promise if I change again, you will take me out."

Cynder was speechless but the purple dragon had lost his normally cheerful and cocky attitude and he didn't even seem like the same person. "I'm sorry Spyro, but I can't and won't. I love you too much to hurt you, much less kill you… besides, that form is almost unstoppable and I'd die if I fought you like that."

Spyro smiled for a brief moment before he spoke again. "Then get Jet to do it. He has the same power except he has control over it."

"That's it!" Cynder nearly shouted. "Why not ask Jet to help you control that dark power? I can always learn shadow later."

Spyro was shocked. "Jet can use darkness?"

"Yes. That was what he accidentally blasted me with that day at Warfang when you watched us train. How else would it have ripped through my shadowfire so easily? He already told Casille too."

"Alright, well I'll ask him. But I want you to be there every time we train so you two can at least knock me out if I lose it."

Cynder smiled and nodded, happy to see Spyro had cheered up again and his normal attitude returned. She gave the purple dragon a quick kiss and fell asleep with Spyro beside her.

* * *

**Sorry if I hit a nerve when Spyro got depressed but it plays in with the plot so bear with me please. This one took a lot of thinking because writer's block hit me like a big bag of bricks. Also, I had a few distractions like going to the hospital with Tiff and her fiancé to get a sonogram. (I get to be a godfather in about six months.) Speaking of Tiffany, she had a HUGE influence on this chapter so a lot of credit to her. Anyone know how weird it feels to give editing tips through a phone call when she couldn't see the text she was helping me correct? Wasn't very fun. Well I've babbled enough so I'm going to go start on the next chapter now so later! Please R&R.**


	7. Chapter 7

Sorry it's been so long guys. School started back and got distracted by random stuff. Enjoy

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Chapter Seven

Jet looked around and found himself in a cave that was completely bare except for a few torches lining the walls. Around the circular chamber, several tunnels could be seen going on forever.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" he shouted. His voice echoed several times before he finally got an answer.

"Only us Jet."

He turned around to see a large adult dragon with a red body and silver chest. He had two silver horns that were shaped similar to Spyro's. On his tail was a fierce looking blade in the shape of a single flame, and looked about as sharp as Cynder's. Vicious silver spikes ran from the back of his neck to his tail. He looked about as old as the guardians.

"Who are you and how do you know me?" Jet asked.

"I am someone who needs your help." The red dragon said blankly. "I need dragons with massive power from each element, and you are the strongest shadow dragon I've ever seen."

"You've been watching me?" Jet said as he backed away a little.

"My name is Flare, and I had my wyverns keep an eye on you for me, along with Spyro, Cynder, and the others."

"So you try to ask for our help by attacking me and my friends?"

"It may have been unneeded but I had to know how strong all of you are. I wish to bring back my older brother Ignitus. I'm sure you have heard of him before." Flare said as he began to circle the shadow dragon. "So will you help me?"

Jet thought for a second. He only knew Ignitus from what Cynder had told him.

"What would I have to do?" he asked.

"Not much really, I just need a massive amount of power from each element and your dark powers put you far ahead of any normal shadow dragon. We need to have all of the energy stored in one person who can hold it all at once, which leaves us with only a few choices; Spyro, Cynder, or myself." The red dragon said with a smirk.

"You said I'm the strongest shadow dragon you've seen. So there's more than just me and Cynder left?"

"There are a few, but none quite as strong as you." Flare answered. "They made their own city, though not as incredible as Warfang. It is completely filled with dragons that use the three dark elements, mostly shadow."

"I bet anywhere would be better than Warfang right about now…" Jet said in a barely audible voice. "With that army on the way, it will be ruins in just a few days."

"You mean that small army of grublins?" Flare asked, almost cracking a smile.

"What do you mean small? There are thousands of them!"

"All grublins are extremely weak on their own, cause a little chaos and you can easily win." Flare said as he walked toward Jet.

"With Spyro and Cynder in the fight, how would you lose to anything? You seemed capable of taking out my own battalion fairly easily."

"I died! How is it easy if I get killed?" Jet roared, surprising both Flare and himself.

"Yes but you were lucky enough to have that young white dragoness with you. That is what you need to exploit if you want to win. Tell me, what do you think of her power?" the red dragon asked with a grin that Jet failed to notice.

"Well it's weird for sure, but it saved me so I like it. But I'm not going to use Casille like that. She's been through a lot already."

"If you don't use everything to your advantage, how do you expect to live when they are done with Warfang? They will come for Avalar next. But enough, are you going to help me or not?"

"I won't. There are just too many things that don't fit. How is it you can control wyverns? Also, what do you really want with all of that power? I was told Ignitus was an only child."

Almost as soon as Jet finished his sentence, Flare smacked him in the face with his tail, making him roll until he hit the wall. He put one paw on Jet's neck and opened his maw. Jet could see a mass of fire building in the back of the red dragon's throat, but it kept getting brighter until it did not resemble fire at all. There was a flash of white light followed by an extreme pain.

He looked around and saw he was back at the hut near Avalar. He saw Casille sitting beside the bed with a worried look.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Jet fell back down on the bed and stared at the ceiling before answering. "Yeah, I'll be fine." He replied quietly.

"What happened?"

"It was just a bad dream. Sorry I woke you up." He said before rolling over on his side to go back to sleep.

"Not until you tell me what happened. You can sleep afterwards." She said as she jumped on him.

Jet laughed, finally out of the shock the nightmare had caused, and told her every detail.

"Don't worry Jet, it was just a nightmare right? Besides, nobody could beat you that easily." she said with her normally sweet and caring tone.

"That's not true. There are two legends living right next door that could both tear me limb from limb if they wanted. I'll just have to try staying on their good side." Jet smiled.

"Speaking of them, they came by a while ago. They need to put Cynder's training off for a while and help Spyro control his dark power so it doesn't take over again."

"Trying to help the world's strongest dragon suppress an even stronger power, sounds like fun." He smirked before putting his wings around the mist dragoness. "I guess I'll talk to them in the morning." He pulled Casille closer and they both went back to sleep.

* * *

Not the best i know but I'm already working on chapter 8 so it shouldn't take as long... i hope.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter eight**

"Make it stronger!" Jet ordered as Spyro breathed a constant stream of fire on the base of a thick tree. "It needs to be stronger for you to be able to make darkness take its form. Focus it on a small section at a time."

Spyro followed his instructions until he made a foot thick hole clear through the tree and saw the charred boulder behind it.

The purple dragon looked to his friend asked "How was that?"

"Pretty good, but you can't hold back if you intend to eventually control darkness."

"Eventually? This is going to take a long time then?" Spyro asked.

"Well it took me about ten years to master shadow. You're just getting started."Jet smirked.

"Ten years? I need control now!" Spyro exclaimed.

"Relax Spyro. You're a purple remember? It won't take nearly as long for you to get it down. I'm sure you will have it in a week."

"Okay, but why are we using fire for shadow training?"

"The easiest shadow technique to learn is shadowfire, so I figured if you can get the element's form mastered you wouldn't need to worry about it later once you awaken the element itself. I was trying to save some time."

Spyro gave a slight laugh. "Trust me, I know fire. It was my first element and to this day is still my favorite."

"Oh… Well, I still enjoyed watching you blow random stuff up." Jet laughed. "Let's get started then. What do all of the elements have in common?"

Spyro thought for a second and said the only answer he could think of. "They all use up energy don't they?"

"Well… yes, but what I was looking for was traits. All of the elements grow in power in response to a certain trait or feeling like leadership with fire, or bravery with earth. I think it might help in awakening the element in the first place too."

"Alright, so what is it for shadow?" the purple dragon asked.

"That would be comfort. You need to be comfortable with the fact that you can use an element that is so feared." The black dragon said. "When you become comfortable in the shadows, they can protect you. Darkness is the same, but to a much higher degree."

"Could you try guiding me through it step by step? Ignitus and the Chronicler both taught me that way and it made it much easier."

"I can do that." The shadow dragon said before starting his list of instructions. "No matter where you go, shadows are a constant part of existence. Even at night, the shadow of the planet surrounds us."

Cynder listened closely. 'Who knew he could be this deep?' she thought as she listened to her friend speak.

"When most dragons are little, they fear what they can't see. Even adults are cautious about it. The shadows know everything that hides inside of them, so let them be your eyes. Just trust them." Jet finished.

Spyro had his eyes shut and he focused on what he was told. Jet and Cynder grinned as black, fog-like shadowfire surrounded Spyro and his teacher. The purple dragon's eyes shot open and the shadowfire surrounding them flew straight up, making a column of the black flames before dying down and retreating into spyro's body.

"Does that happen every time you get a new element?" Jet asked.

"It did sometimes. When the Chronicler opened them back up for me, it made something like a mini fury attack."

"Well I like it. Now, let's get started." The black dragon said as he stood beside Spyro.

Jet showed Spyro a few abilities associated with shadow and, after a few attempts; the purple dragon began to catch on to the comfort provided by his new element. He could hide his body in shadows, breathe shadowfire, and jump from one shadow to another one farther away. He found the last one to be particularly draining on his power.

The two started a sparring match using only shadow elements, just as Jet and Cynder had done in Warfang, but it stayed that way. Jet won, still being more experienced with the element, and told Spyro to use his shadowfire on the tree he previously scorched. Spyro did as he was told and noticed the tree didn't even shake. It was as if nothing made contact. When he stopped, he saw the tree's leaves had turned brown. He gave Jet a curious look.

"There's nothing wrong. Shadowfire isn't hot and doesn't have a physical make-up. Instead of burning, it blinds and suffocates." The black dragon said before turning to Spyro. "Now try again, this time in your dark form." he said.

Spyro looked down at his claws before speaking. "I can't…"

"What? Why can't you? You've done it before right?" he asked.

"Yes… but the first time I nearly attacked Cynder and Sparx, and the time after that I almost attacked Cynder again at the belt of fire. You were there when it happened the third time. The reason I'm doing this training is because I have no control over it at all and I was hoping I could use darkness to fight without using that corrupting element ever again. Besides, I don't know what would happen if I changed again." The purple dragon said, remembering his nightmare in Warfang.

"I see. You want something as strong as convexity that won't corrupt you."

Spyro gave a slight nod, not looking up.

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you," Jet started. "But from what I saw the other day, nothing is that powerful save convexity itself. Darkness is powerful, sure, but that was unbelievable!"

"So I can't control the change?" Spyro looked up to his friend.

"Maybe you can. You said it is convexity that corrupts and transforms you, but Cynder tells me that you saved her and beat Malefor with it without changing. If you can get control over convexity, maybe you can stay in control of your little transition." Jet said. "But… that does mean you will need to use it more. Eventually, you will even have to transform to try it."

Spyro didn't respond.

"Can you change at will?"

The purple dragon shook his head. The two stood in silence for a while before Jet broke it.

"Well I can keep teaching you with shadow, and maybe darkness pretty soon, but I don't think I can help past that."

"I'd appreciate the help. The less I have to use convexity, the better. Mind if I take a break?"

Jet shook his head. "Of course I don't. I'll see you later then."

Jet beat his wings a few times before lifting off. Spyro turned around and headed to Cynder who was talking with Flame, Ember, Celestia, and a dark green dragon he hadn't met before.

"Hey guys…" the purple dragon said as he sat beside Cynder.

"Hey Spyro, are you alright? You don't look so good." The ever caring black dragoness said.

"Well actually no, I'm not alright. In fact, I think I'm going to lose my mind. It's nothing major." He said, putting on a fake smile.

Cynder looked at him like he was already crazy. "What's wrong?"

"I'm supposed to master every element and I thought I did, but now there's four more I have to master while convexity is gnawing at my mind. I lose a little more control each time I use it. I'm not so sure I can use convexity ever again without letting out that… thing."

"Sure you can." The black dragoness gave a comforting smile. "You mastered electricity while having to put up with both Volteer and Sparx annoying mouths, this should be nothing!"

Spyro faked a smile before looking around for his dragonfly of a brother. "Speaking of him, do you know where he went? I haven't seen him around since we got here."

Cynder nodded. "He left this morning. He wants to do everything possible to help Warfang so he decided to be the messenger between our city and the cheetah's." She said.

"I bet you just love the peace and quiet though." The purple dragon smirked.

"Well it's nice to have some time to ourselves without hearing something about me being evil. The other day he called me the 'Demonic Dragoness'. I actually kind of like that one." Cynder said.

"I thought he was over that by now." The purple dragon said.

"He is. Now it's just for fun. I get back at him sometimes." The dragoness smirked.

"Get back how?"

"I usually end up calling him a nightlight or something like that. It really aggravates him."

The two began talking about all of the ridiculous things the gold dragonfly had done in the past few years, which usually involved mocking them or the guardians. About an hour into their conversation, they began feeling light headed, and fell asleep, followed by Flame, Ember, and Celestia.

Jet was flying far above the clearing where he had finished helping Spyro train. He was looking for Casille of course, but also trying to think through some recent events. He was still trying to figure out why he lost control of his dark power back in Warfang, who Flare was, how he reached Jet through his dream and why.

He finally caught a glimpse of Casille through the canopy of some trees nearby and decided to have a little fun. He glided down and landed softly near the sleeping dragoness, trying not to make any noise. He sunk into the shadows made by the trees and made his way toward the white dragoness. He was about a foot behind her but before he could jump, the mist dragoness' tails started to shake erratically, followed by the rest of her body. He quickly jumped out of his hiding spot and got his forelegs around her waist. He tried to get a grip on her, but after a few seconds of failing to hold her still, he felt every one of his limbs become heavy and he quickly blacked out.

Spyro opened his eyes to a very familiar sight, the dreamscape where the chronicler had taken him to practice dragon time and to restore his elements after the battle with Cynder. He was on a group of rocks floating in space with some ruins floating around. As he looked around, he found out he was not the only one who had been brought here this time. Cynder, Flame, Celestia, Jet, Ember, and Casille had all been brought too. As he got up, he heard a very familiar voice.

"Welcome everyone." It said.

"Chronicler?" Spyro called. "What is it this time? I thought we were done training here. Hello?"

"You were, but I didn't bring you here for training like the old Chronicler did." The voice said. "Why do you think I brought all of you young dragon?"

As Spyro began to recognize the voice, he looked back to see everyone getting up and taking in the incredible surroundings. Each one of them had an amazed look plastered across their face.

"I don't know. You brought us here so you tell me."

"You always were impatient Spyro." The voice said as a teal colored adult dragon materialized on the platform.

The purple dragon's eyes widened. "Ignitus…" he mumbled.

"Hello everyone. It is good to see all of you." The new Chronicler said as he looked over everyone.

"Ignitus, how did you survive?" Spyro said as he ran straight for his old mentor. "I thought you died in the belt!"

"I was ready to die, but the old Chronicler saved me so I could take his place in this new age." The former fire guardian said.

"So you aren't dead?" Cynder asked from behind Spyro.

"Well I'm here aren't I?" Ignitus answered sarcastically.

"Ignitus has a sense of humor?" Cynder faked a surprised look and got a laugh out of everyone.

"Now that I'm watching history unfold I don't have much else to do." The wise dragon said. "Spyro, do you remember when the last Chronicler showed you the book documenting your life and the one for Cynder as well?" Spyro nodded.

"The age you started has affected everything, including the white isle. Each of the books about a certain dragon's life now has a very interesting entry at the end."

"What kind of entry?" the purple dragon asked.

The chronicler closed his eyes and the dreamscape quickly changed from a mostly empty void to the round room Spyro quickly recognized. Book-filled shelves covered every inch of the walls now. The large hourglass in the center of the room stayed the same, including the blue sand inside.

"This is so cool." Flame said as he looked around.

Ignitus used his mind to make a book levitate off of a shelf and toward the red dragon. Flame took hold of the book and looked at the cover. It was a deep red with yellow near the edges. He opened it up and saw pictures of the day he hatched, much to his embarrassment as Ember glanced over his shoulder and started giggling.

"The section I want to show you all is in the back." Ignitus reminded the young dragons.

Everyone looked over the red dragon's shoulders as he turned to the last page. There were several names and pictures of dragons connected by a series of lines.

"The new age has given the books a new page that shows the dragon's family tree." The Chronicler said.

"This is amazing!" Flame said.

"It sure is, look here." Cynder said, pointing a claw to the picture of the male dragon over Flame's. Everyone was surprised after Flame read the text aloud.

"Immediate family: Mother; Solara. Father; Ignitus…"

Everyone looked up to the former fire guardian. "There's one more thing I want you to see. Keep reading."

Flame did as he was told and the only one who wasn't in complete disbelief was the Chronicler.

"Brother: Spyro."

_They could have just looked in a mirror and figured that one out._ Jet thought.

Flame looked at his brother and saw the shock in his face. Without warning, Spyro bolted across the room and tore a purple and gold book from a shelf and opened it to the last page. It was almost a perfect match to Flame's page.

The Chronicler walked over to Spyro, followed by Flame. "I intended to tell you after the war ended but I didn't get the chance as you can see." He said.

"Why did it have to wait until a time where I can never see you? Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Spyro asked, not looking up from his book.

"If you had known, you would have focused more on me than the war. Everyone needed you to save Cynder and stop Malefor at any price. This was how I had to pay."

"You could have told me before we got stuck in the belt!" Spyro roared. His voice started to have an otherworldly tone in it.

"If I had let the attachment you had to me become any stronger, you would have killed Cynder just to get my body! You lost control of your darkness then and anymore would have made you lose it completely Spyro." The Chronicler said. "The things I have kept from you have been for your sake, not mine."

Casille looked to the black and navy dragon beside her who had been watching since Spyro's sudden dash across the room. "You're good with words. Is there anything you can do?"

Jet looked at her, then to Spyro, and finally to Cynder when he noticed something about the black dragoness. He ran to Spyro, whose scales had become a dark violet color at this point, and tackled the legendary dragon. Everyone was left stunned as the attacks started. Spyro got up and shot a condensed fireball at Jet. The black dragon dodged and the flames dispersed when they came near the books on the other side of the room. Jet sunk into his shadow and quickly moved behind the purple dragon. He put his tail around Spyro's mid-section, catching his forepaws with it, and slammed him into the wall beside them. Spyro was about to try attacking with his elements again, but Jet put both of his forepaws on his maw so he couldn't use his breath attacks. The purple dragon squirmed around for a bit but stopped when Jet slammed his head into the wall he was pinned against. Standing on their hind legs, the black dragon put his own head on the wall beside Spyro's.

"Calm down!" he commanded, sternly enough to get Spyro's attention, but soft enough so only the two of them would hear it, then released his friend's jaws.

"He hid this from me for years! My only blood family-"

"Count yourself lucky! Some of us never knew our blood family at all!" Jet told him, speaking more about his friends than himself.

Spyro stopped for a moment. He had forgotten about everyone who was with them. Ember and Celestia knew their parents, but they were the only ones in the group that did. He looked over to Cynder who appeared shocked at Jet's sudden attack. He forgot to think about what her life was like; it was possible she had killed her own parents as Malefor's general.

Jet released the purple dragon and they both got back down on all fours. The black dragon walked back over to Casille as if nothing happened and Spyro ran to his new-found family to apologize before sitting beside Cynder.

"You decided to bring all of us here. So does that mean you have books like these for all of us?" Celestia asked. The teal dragon nodded and looked over to a bookshelf near the group.

A few books randomly came off the shelves and went to the dragon they recorded. The covers of the books were very similar to its owner's color patterns except for Cynder's who had a book that was black and grey instead of black and red-violet that covered her.

The young dragons started reading the names in their family tree. Flame started it, they skipped Spyro's since his was the same, then Celestia and Ember, and last was Cynder. Jet went off to read his on his own for a bit. He tried to lie on his back, but the book was about as big as his chest so he sat up against a wall with the book in his lap. He read over the family tree with great interest, until he saw a name that he wished was never there.

Casille walked over to the black dragon. As she got closer, she noticed a vicious scowl on his face. Jet looked up to see who was coming and his expression softened. She sat beside him and tried to look at his page, but Jet quickly snapped the book shut.

"Is something wrong?" the mist dragoness asked.

"I'm fine. So, what do you think of all this?"

"It's really interesting." Casille answered.

"Anyone like you in your family? Maybe you inherited your form or your element from someone."

"I don't know. I already have my foster parents and they are my family now. I don't intend on looking anytime soon."

"Hey guys!"

The two looked up to Flame who was motioning them to come over. Cynder was opening her book and wanted everyone to see what was in it.

She quickly skipped through the pages about her horrible past and stopped on the one showing a _very_ large family tree. Reading the list aloud, Cynder found she was originally a pure shadow dragon before her corruption.

"Dusk, Shadow, Twilight, Umbra, Shade…" she continued to list names in her family before stopping at the names of two dragons just above her own. She read it to herself for a moment before saying it aloud, this time with a nervous tone in her voice. Ignitus just smiled at the expression plastered across her face.

"King Eclipse and Queen Luna…"


	9. Chapter 9

**I'm not dead! I've just been really busy lately, mostly reading some amazing stories that many of you might know. Anyway, who's ready for my longest chapter yet? 7,364 words, that's a lot for me! Enjoy.**

**Chapter 9**

The dragons stood around Cynder's book in disbelief. The former Queen of Conquer would really have been a queen one day. Ignitus, having known her lineage from the time she was brought to the temple, was smiling at the younger dragon's expressions.

"It's about time I told you, Cynder." The old dragon started. "Your parents came to the temple with your egg and asked us to protect you. They said they would have done it themselves but the apes were focusing on their city of Kaylis at the time. Eclipse had been a close friend of mine when we were younger, but we eventually lost contact with him. Up until I became the Chronicler, I thought the apes succeeded and that he was dead, thank the ancestors I was wrong. I took your egg in with the others and a few weeks later, the apes raided on the temple. You already know the rest."

"So they're still alive?" Cynder asked. Ignitus calmly nodded. Cynder, however, was too excited to sit still. The black dragoness was mentally bouncing off the walls at the thought of meeting the family she never knew.

"Why wait until now to tell us about all of this?" Spyro asked.

"I was going to tell her anyway, but now seemed like a good time since you all need a safer place to stay. The first day in Avalar and you already had the dark army find you. It won't be long before they attack again. I have already sent word to Terrador, Prowlus, and Eclipse about my plan and they all agreed, but I didn't tell Eclipse you were coming personally Cynder. You can tell them yourself. That way you won't have a horde of citizens swarming you on sight. Spyro however…" The group turned to Spyro. "Every dragon in the city would run up to meet the legendary purple dragon, so if you want to go unnoticed, we need something to make his scales black to look like those of a shadow dragon."

"Like what?" the purple dragon asked. "My scales are too bright. Even if I had something over them, you could still see some purple."

"Maybe, but there have been a few times when the color of your scales turned black naturally."

"What are you talking about?" Spyro stopped for a second and let his words sink in. "No! There is no way I'm doing that ever again! I never want to use that power! When I do, I lose control! You were watching the fight in Avalar, you saw what I did!"

"You destroyed them all-"

"And then I almost attacked my friends!"

"That wasn't you. It was convexity's influence. When you transform, you have complete mastery of it, am I right?" the teal dragon asked.

"Well, yes, but how do you expect me to stay in control when I turn into that monster?"

"You can after a lot of practice here where you can't harm anyone. Just let me know when you want me to bring you here."

"First came shadow training, then darkness, and now training in your sleep? Sucks to be you." Jet grinned.

"I have something to show you Spyro." Ignitus looked to another shelf and another purple book brought itself to Spyro, this one with black trimmed edges. "This book belonged to the purple dragon before Malefor. He had full control over convexity and could transform like you, but he can do it at will and stay sane. One part in that book shows how he mastered it and what he was thinking before, during, and after. I want you to study this. While you go into the city as your dark form, Cynder will have to use shadows to cover her markings. They are birthmarks that every member of the royal family has. The dragons in Kaylis will be sure to recognize them right away."

Cynder nodded. "What about the others? Isn't the city full of just shadow dragons?"

"No, it is just known as the shadow dragon city because of the royal family, but most of the dragons are of the other four elements you control. Besides, I already told them that a large group of dragons was coming from Warfang. It's time for you to go now. Terrador told me he is sending a present your way."

The dragons started disappearing one by one until only Jet was left with the Chronicler.

"Jet, there is something you should see." The teal dragon said.

"Alright." Jet replied as Ignitus showed him another book, one with a bright blue cover.

"Do you recognize this dragoness?" he asked, showing the first picture in the book to the black dragon who nodded.

"It's Amanda…"

"Correct. There is something that has troubled me for some time now. Her name is recorded in the book of the dead, but she has several blank pages that are beyond the one detailing her death."

"…So one book says she's dead, and another says she isn't?" Jet asked. Ignitus nodded.

"I have no idea what it means, but she was your friend. I want you to keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

"I will. The others are waiting so would you mind sending me back?"

"Of course I will but there is one more thing. You know you will have to tell them your lineage at some point…"

"I know… I just hope they don't think I'll be anything like the ones in my book."

The first to wake up in the clearing was Flame with the rest not long afterwards. Around the same time, Jet and Casille were coming out of their little spot in the woods.

"How long were we out?" Flame asked to nobody in particular.

"You all just passed out for a few seconds. Are you guys sick?" a deep voice asked. The group looked over to the earth dragon that had been with them earlier.

"Only a few seconds… How did our old man do that?"

"The Chronicler watches and records time, but I didn't know he could control it too. The last Chronicler told me only purple dragons could do it." Spyro said.

"So you can too? You're full of it." To prove his crimson scaled brother wrong, Spyro activated the ability he called "dragon time" and was on the other side of the clearing in the blink of an eye.

"Told you!" Spyro yelled from where he scorched the tree. He used his time ability again and was right back to where he was before.

"Show off…" Flame mumbled which got a good laugh out of everyone.

"Not to ruin the fun or anything, but shouldn't we be going?" Celestia asked to the other's approval.

The first half of the time was spent in silence before Spyro spoke up.

"So Cynder, if you're royalty now, does that mean I am too?"

"Hmm… I think it does." The black dragoness answered. "Just don't start treating me any different."

"Then I guess I am too!" said Flame.

"You can be the family's royal pain."

"Oh so you're so different brother?"

"Well I can actually USE the shadow element; I think they'll like that."

"Too bad they won't like the fact that you're nailin' their princess, you guys need to soundproof your room better." Spyro and Cynder both stopped where they were red faced while thinking the same thing. 'We didn't even do anything in Warfang!' Ember slapped Flame on the back of his head with her tail, Celestia was trying and failing to suppress a laugh, Jet wasn't even trying to hide his, and Casille suddenly found the grass very interesting.

"Good job Spyro," Flame smirked, "but Ember is still a bit louder."

"FLAME!" Ember roared.

"…and here's where I run. See ya guys!" the crimson dragon said as he bolted off with Ember spouting fire behind him.

"Are those two always like that?" Jet asked.

"It's usually worse." Celestia answered.

"I'm so sorry for your burden."

"You'll get used to it."

It didn't take long for the group to get back to their little village. When they did, each went to their own house for the night, but having just slept thanks to the Chronicler and the bomb that just got dropped on their heads about Kaylis, none of them could go to sleep. In the two hero's house, Cynder was frantically pacing around the room while Spyro watched with an amused expression.

"What do you think they will be like? Do you think they'll like me? Would they know about Malefor's control over me? Do they know about you being alive?" Spyro laughed at the black dragoness' questions.

"Calm down Cyn, you're their daughter. I'm sure they'll love you even though you were controlled. I was too, remember? Everyone in Warfang has forgiven you so I know everyone Kaylis will be overjoyed to see their princess is alive and well."

"Even if they don't know my name yet?"

"Of course."

"You know… sometimes I still can't believe I have you after everything I did. I nearly killed you so many times but look at us now!" Cynder smiled. "I really can't thank you enough."

"You can and already have. You saved me more than attacked me. Remember those guys when we first got back?"

"You're talking about the huge group that adored you but hated my guts. You knew people might hate you for standing up for me but you did it anyway." Cynder said, looking to the floor.

"Some idiot thought it would be fun to attack me for helping you so then you knocked him out with a single fear blast! It was awesome! At least nobody ever questioned your loyalty again right?"

"You… have a point."

"Yeah, I do. Now quit blaming yourself for everything and quit worrying. The entire city will love you to death, weather I have to step in or not."

"Why are you always right?" Cynder smiled as she sat beside the purple dragon.

"I don't know. I think it is just luck." Spyro laughed before putting a crimson wing over the shadow dragoness.

"Come on Ember, I said I was sorry."

"I don't care, that wasn't even true!"

"I was just trying to make the guys laugh. I didn't mean to embarrass you too."

"Well you did, I think I'm still a few shades brighter than normal…" the pink scaled dragoness said. "Can you think about what you're saying next time?"

"Maybe, but no promises yet." Flame smirked.

"That mouth of yours is going to kill you one day, you know that right?"

"As long as I can outrun you it won't!" Flame said with a huge grin.

"I wonder if Spyro is normally as cocky as you. How does Cynder put up with that?"

"Probably because she likes that side of him. You enjoy mine don't you?"

"Until you go overboard with it…"

Celestia had been listening to her sister's conversation through the thin walls of the wooden house. After getting bored of the constant scolding Flame was getting, she decided to go visit a friend instead.

"So you really don't care about your family tree?" Jet asked Casille.

"Not really. None of them know me and I don't know any of them. I told you, I already have a family that cares for me. Aeris and Chasm treat me as if I were their own daughter regardless of how I look. They are my real family."

"_I hadn't thought of that…"_ Jet thought. "Alright, but I would still be a little curious about mine. I may not have liked a certain someone I saw in there but at least I looked."

"Well maybe I am a little curious, but I don't want to end up having to choose between my real or blood families."

"Why not choose both? You could stay with one family some of the time and some with the other family."

"That might work. I'll think about it." The mist dragoness replied. "So who was in your book that you didn't like? I thought you didn't know anyone from your blood family."

"There was one whose name I knew, but I don't know the guy personally. I found out I have an ancestor that was an infamous traitor to Warfang and a lot of people see him a mass murderer."

"How do you know that?" Casille asked.

"Everyone who knows anything about dragon history knows his name. I just don't want people to compare me to him."

"So did the book have your brood's name?"

Jet thought back to his book before answering. "Well at the top of my page it said Sylis in big runes so I think that's it."

"Okay. Well I guess the next time Ignitus calls us back we can see my heritage."

"Sounds like a good idea." Not long after their conversation stopped, someone knocked on their door.

"Casille, are you still up?" a familiar voice asked.

"Yes Celestia, come on in."

The ice dragoness came in and walked over to Casille.

"Would you two mind if I stayed here for the night?" she asked.

"I guess Ember is yelling at Flame for that comment earlier?" the white dragoness grinned.

"You have no idea…" Celestia smirked.

"Of course you can stay."

"We have a while until it gets dark so how about I go find us some food?" The shadow dragon suggested. "What would you like?"

"Could you find a deer or a sheep for me please?" Celestia asked politely.

"Sure, and what would you like?" Jet asked the mist dragoness.

"Think you could find some apples?"

"Of course I can. I won't be long." The black dragon said before walking outside. One beat from his strong wings and he was off.

"_I could have sworn I saw an apple tree on the way back."_ He thought. After a few minutes of searching he found the tree with several of the red fruits. _"Now where to put these"_ Jet realized he couldn't carry Casille's fruit and still carry back a full grown deer for his guest so he quickly flew back to the house. He purposely landed hard so the girls would hear. "I can't carry it all at once so I'll be right back with your food." He said as he walked in, looking to the ice dragoness for the last part. He turned to leave before Casille stopped him.

"One more thing Jet." He heard her say. Jet turned and was instantly met Casille's maw with his own. After a few seconds she stopped.

"Okay, _now_ you can go." The mist dragoness smirked.

Jet gave a cocky smile before leaving to get the rest of their food.

"You've change a lot lately haven't you?" Celestia asked her friend. "Ember and I used to be the only people your age you would talk to other than Flame occasionally, and now you can do that in front of the ancestors and everybody."

"It is all because of him. I don't know why but I feel confident around him. When he got hurt in that fight yesterday-"

"That's alright, as long as he stays alive to keep you happy I won't have to kill him myself."

Jet was flying at top speed under the canopy in his immaterial shadow cloak to phase through branches. _"There's got to be a deer around here somewhere."_ He thought. Between a few trees, he saw a few sheep in a clearing. _"That works too."_ He dropped into the ground and came up under the sheep and caught the animal by the neck with his claws before quickly dragging the body into the shadows with him.

Night had fallen when Jet dropped his shadow cloak and used his tail to drag the sheep behind him. He began thinking about everything that had happened that day but all of his thoughts led to others and always ended in him thinking about the white dragoness waiting for him. He was too absorbed in his thoughts that he did not notice the sound of something running up behind him. Sadly, he didn't notice until after he was stabbed in his right hind leg.

Jet roared and collapsed where he was as his attacker tried to take the sheep he had killed. The shadow dragon turned to see an enormous wild boar. The beast's right tusk was coated with blood, presumably Jet's. The animal charged at Jet again, aiming to gore his heart this time. Jet's leg left him unable to defend himself against this massive beast physically, but it did not hinder his magical strength at all. He opened his maw and covered the boar in shadowfire. However, his attack didn't even slow the boar down. Jet jumped out of the way and the boar ran past him, stopping when it hit a thick tree. The animal turned around to face the black dragon which showed that the huge beast was actually blinded by the shadowfire.

Jet tried to stand back up, but his injured leg gave out. The boar was trying its best to find the shadow dragon with its nose. Instead of catching Jet's scent however, it caught a second wave of the black, fog-like shadowfire which started to suffocate the animal. While it was gasping for breath, Jet was trying to get some distance between him and the boar. When Jet got to where he wanted, he summoned the translucent black chain, a move he decided to call "shadow bind" when he first learned it years ago, and made it coil around the boar's tusks.

The wild boar shook its head violently, trying to get free of the chains, but Jet held tight from where he was. The shadowfire soon wore off and the animal could see and breathe again. Instead of trying to get loose again, the boar charged straight at Jet with renewed strength. Casille's face flashed through the dragon's mind again. _"I said I would protect you… and I intend to."_ Jet quickly opened his jaws for another shadowfire wave, but instead the wild boar was met by a shadow attack that had turned into pure darkfire.

The wild boar was sent flying through the air covered in the black and purple flames and Jet pulled on the now midnight purple chains. The dark bind had burned through the boar's tusks and snatched at its head, twisting it with enough strength and speed to break its neck.

"_Darkfire… and again it wasn't intentional… What the hell is happening to me?"_ Jet thought. _"I'd better get back, but first…"_ The shadow dragon limped over to the boars burning carcass and used his waning control of the darkness to extinguish the fire. _"So, how am I supposed to drag your fat ass back?"_

Jet put a paw on the boar and he faded into his shadow cloak with both of his kills. Being immaterial would stop him from losing anymore blood and it was much faster than limping while dragging two bodies, but it was also a strain on his power because of the sheer amount of power the darkness attacks burn up.

He managed to make it back to his and Casille's home and quickly called for help. The two dragonesses inside came rushing out with horrified expressions after seeing Jet's blood-soaked leg. The white dragoness immediately started breathing a heavy stream of mist on the wound. Jet was feeling incredibly light-headed from the amount of blood he lost and would have lost consciousness if Celestia hadn't put her sub-zero tail blade onto his leg. The freezing temperature nearly made Jet jump out of his scales but he simply didn't have the energy.

Slowly, he started feeling better. It was as if Casille's mist was regenerating his blood as well as his flesh. When the dragonesses were finished, Jet tried to stand up. He thanked the two of them and then dragged his kills inside with a heavy limp with both of the worried dragonesses close behind him.

As he planned on doing from the start, Jet gave Celestia the sheep. He hadn't expected to have an entire boar to himself though which was far too massive for him to eat by himself, so with some help, he hefted the huge piece of meat up on his back and decided to give the rest to Spyro and Cynder. Other than Jet's "Thank you" none of them had said a word until the black dragon left.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Casille asked her friend.

"What's his problem? Why can't he just walk away from a fight? I understand the time when he was surrounded by wyverns but he could have just flown away from the pig!" Celestia's comment made Casille think back to the conversation between her and Jet about darkness in her room back in Warfang.

"_So you really could turn someday_?" Casille asked_._

"_Not if I can stay in total control. I can usually use it when I want to and hold it back when I don't but yesterday I accidentally hit Cynder with it."_

"_Is she alright?"_

"_She might be hurting for a little while, but she'll be fine. As long as she's alive she can recover."_

"_Does Spyro know?"_

"_He saw it happen but I'm not sure he knows what it was. He might think it was just a strong shadow attack." Jet said._ _"I wish I could live my life to the fullest without it sometimes."_

"_You mean you have to use it?"_

"_If I have to use it to win a fight then I will. I may not know my real family but I have their power now. Losing because I didn't want to use it would be like spitting on their graves. I'm proud to be a shadow dragon and I won't let my race's name be dragged through the mud. Ask Torch, he's seen what I can do to someone who looks down on my race. He's got the scars to prove it too."_

"Hello? Are you there Casille?" Celestia called while waving a wing in front of her friend's face.

"He's too proud to run away…" Casille said, barely loud enough for her friend to hear.

"What? What good is his pride if it gets him killed?"

"He claims to be fighting for all shadow dragons, not just himself. I can't really blame him though. If there were more like me, I'd probably do the same thing."

The next morning, Spyro and Cynder were up early to get everyone ready for their move to Kaylis a few hours later. Flying high above the houses, Cynder amplified her voice with her fear element. Spyro, not wanting to lose his hearing from being so close to the loud sound, stayed on the ground where her voice would carry without shattering bones.

After her announcement, Cynder landed beside Spyro and the two decided to go see if their friends needed help getting ready. They went to see Jet and Casille first. When they got there, they were surprised to see a few adult dragons outside of the house.

"Spyro, we didn't bring them with us did we?" Cynder whispered.

"No, but I do recognize them. Hey, Voltara!" Spyro called. The yellow and black dragoness turned around to face him.

"Hi guys. Terrador sent us to make sure you get to the city in one piece."

"He thinks we can't do it ourselves?" he asked. Voltara bent her long neck to whisper something to Spyro.

"He told me to keep you and Cynder together at all times. Ignitus wants you to bring her with you when you're ready to practice. If you lose control again, you might need her to bring you back if you can't do it yourself." She told him.

The only people that knew of his dark form were the few that had seen it firsthand and he would rather it stay that way.

"Did he say what kind of training it was?" the purple dragon asked. He already knew of course but he didn't want just anyone knowing the strongest portion of his power was uncontrollable.

"He just said it was some kind of mental conditioning, the only ones that need to know about it already do know, and that you and Cynder would need to be carried through most of the trip… lucky you. I wish I had that kind of luxury." The yellow dragoness smiled.

"Trust me, no you don't."

"Whatever you say… Anyway, is this where Jet is staying?" Voltara asked motioning to the house. Spyro nodded and turned his head to where Cynder had been, only to see she had left to talk to two of the other adults. After a short conversation, the three of them headed to Spyro.

"Spyro, meet Chasm and Aeris." Cynder said, motioning to each when she said their name.

"It is nice to meet you." The purple dragon said.

"You too." Aeris said giving a gentle smile. Chasm was looking over to the house Jet and Casille were in while mumbling to himself.

"Casille told us that our heroes were her friends now but I thought she was messing with us. Would you happen to know where she is?" the wind dragoness asked.

Spyro nodded. "She's in there with two more of our friends. You two are from the same village as Celestia, aren't you?"

"Celestia is with her then?" she asked, getting another nod from the purple dragon. "Thank you for the help." Aeris said before walking off toward the house in question.

"What should we do now?" Cynder asked. "We have a few hours before we leave."

"I would say we could spar with the others but they need all their energy for the trip."

"Sounds fun. The shore isn't far from here and that's where we leave from, how about we go there?"

"Well that depends." Spyro said.

"On?"

"Can you keep up?" the purple dragon said before shooting himself into the air with a surprised Cynder not far behind.

"You cheated!" said the black dragoness.

"Your point being?" Spyro called back. "Anything goes here!" As soon as he said those words, the black dragoness bolted past him thanks to a controlled tailwind. After a few minutes, Cynder seemed to have used up her power and the wind died down. She had a huge lead and the shoreline was visible now. Spyro smiled to himself as an idea formed in his head. He closed his eyes and tried focusing on one of his favorite abilities. He snapped his eyes open again and the world around him was slowed to a crawl with a blue tinted light over everything.

"What's wrong Spyro? Am I too fast for you now?" Cynder teased. When she looked back to find him, he was gone.

"Spyro?" she called. "Where are you?" The black dragoness nearly fell out of the sky when a purple blur shot under her fast enough to create a sonic boom. She immediately recognized it as Spyro and followed his path to the shore.

"What kept you?" Spyro smirked as Cynder came closer to land.

"Just a purple blur that nearly made me crash. Thanks for that by the way."

The purple dragon gave a nervous chuckle. "Sorry about that. I just couldn't help myself."

"Sure…" Cynder said sarcastically. "Just remember that this little sparring match gives me plenty of chances to get some payback!"

Spyro practically froze. He knew what Cynder was like in the rare cases she was angry and it wasn't pretty. He would pick fighting Malefor over an incredibly angered Cynder. The older purple dragon made that mistake and suffered for it thanks to a blast of black convexity that dwarfed the younger purple's own. Spyro knew Cynder was much more adept than him when it came to magic, and trying to even get a good physical hit in took forever with as agile as the black dragoness was.

The match started with Cynder breathing an enormous whirlwind at the distracted purple dragon. The wind threw Spyro several feet in the air before it dissipated. He managed to catch himself with his wings but almost as soon as he did, a volley of fear waves paralyzed him long enough for him to fall back to the ground. If they hadn't been sparring on a sandy beach, he would have most likely broken a limb or two. He quickly regained his senses and shot a fireball at the black dragoness. She easily dodged it and watched as the heat from the fireball's explosion turned the area she was just on into glass. Smoke from the blast had been blown toward her and left her virtually blind. Seeing an opportunity, she phased into her shadow and made her way over to Spyro who was also surrounded by smoke from his own attack. Now hiding in the purple dragon's shadow, she waited for the smokescreen to vanish. She didn't have to wait long for Spyro to get irritated at the lack of vision and blow the smoke away with a small blizzard.

Spyro looked in every direction for his opponent who seemed to have vanished. He eventually noticed his shadow seemed much darker than before and knew that was where she was hiding. He used a technique Jet had showed him during his shadow training by sending shadow energy to his forepaws and quickly slamming them on the ground, he also mixed it with earth energy for a nasty attack. Cynder was forcefully ejected from Spyro's shadow and a tall earth pillar quickly shot out of the sand, hitting the black dragoness in the stomach and sending her even higher. He then sprayed a blue stream of liquid onto one of Cynder's wings during the fall which encased her right wing in a thick sheet of ice. With her wing frozen, she couldn't slow her fall. In fact, the extra weight from the ice made her fall even faster. She was almost to the ground when she had an idea. She spit a small glob of poison on the ice around her wing. Her poison also worked as a powerful acid, quickly dissolving the ice and letting her slow her fall rather clumsily due to the now freed wing being completely numb.

When she landed, she used her wind to kick up a very strong sandstorm around the two, preventing any escape from an attack she had recently learned, but had never attempted it on a living target before. Cynder rose into the air with red energy surrounding her form. The sheer amount of built up energy already had Spyro worried to the point of trying to stop her. He gathered his remaining energy as quickly as he could; making a green ball of light in front of his open jaws, all while Cynder had continued to build up more power. Spyro had fired a huge earth missile at the black dragoness who just looked at him with a smirk on her face. She opened her mouth and an ear-shattering scream accompanied a huge, moving wall of blood red energy. When it made contact with Spyro's earth missile, the spearhead-shaped boulder was instantly disintegrated. The purple dragon closed his eyes and braced himself for the worst. The fast moving wall of fear magic vanished only inches away from the purple dragon's face. Instead of hearing a blood-curdling scream, he heard a hoarse whisper. Sadly his confidence disappeared when he opened his eyes. Standing only a few feet in front of Spyro was Cynder, 'The Terror of the Skies'.

The full grown dragoness casually walked over toward her target with a malicious look on her face. Even before Spyro had saved her, Cynder's emerald eyes always held a look of kindness and compassion. That no longer existed here. These sharp eyes only held a look filled with sadistic bloodlust. The dark dragoness got to Spyro and did the unthinkable, 'The Terror of the Skies' was bowing to him!

"Master, what should I do next?" she asked. The sandstorm had subsided and the destruction their sparring caused was evident. The glassed sand, ice covering areas, green rocks thrown about, and a puddle of steaming green liquid.

"_Why are you calling me 'master'?"_ Spyro tried to say, but the words that came out of his mouth were completely different.

"I want you to go to Kaylis and annihilate the entire city, starting with the royal family."

"_What!"_ Spyro thought. _"No, Cynder don't do it!"_ his mental struggle was useless. Cynder looked back up with a gaze that gave off a sense of admiration before beating her huge wings and flying out over the ocean.

Spyro still couldn't control his body as it walked over the destroyed battlefield. He could only watch in horror as his body came to a stop over a patch of ice. His scales had reverted to a shadowy purple color, his once amethyst eyes now letting off an ethereal white glow, and both of his horns curved back and tinted a dark gold color.

"Welcome to Hell!" he roared, releasing the strongest burst of convexity he had ever seen. A deadly mix of purple, black, and white energy shot into the air before exploding, raining the highly destructive element over several miles at once. Millions of convexity shots fell in the forest near him, each individual shot making an explosion big enough to engulf a golem, maybe two. In just a minute of this chaos, he could see miles of flat stone on one side and a sea of red water on the other. The temporary dragon village was now barren rock with torched and fossilized bodies strewn everywhere, several of which he recognized.

"Sir, what about our orders?" a deep voice asked. Spyro turned to see several adult dragons land. In his mind, Spyro's eyes widened.

The first to land, and the one who called to him was a familiar crimson dragon, though now they were a darkened red. His eyes were an incredibly dark green, but the rest was still vaguely similar.

"Flame, I want you to follow Cynder. Remain unseen until their army crushes her before you jump in." Flame's eyes widened a little at this. "You are to take Cynder's place as general. Take Ember and the others with you. I want that city destroyed as soon as possible. Eclipse, Luna, Jet, and the guardians are all there so wipe them out first."

"I'm sorry sir, but isn't Cynder our strongest warrior? Why do you need her to die?" Flame asked.

"That's the point. She is far too strong but emotionally, she's ready to break down at any moment. Meeting her family could put my control over her in jeopardy and we can't have someone as powerful as her allied with our enemies. Now don't question me again! You are far more expendable than Cynder so I can do the same to you.?

"Yes sir." The dark red dragon replied before looking over to the dragoness nearby. Her shining pink scales were now much darker and razor sharp, as were her claws. Her crystal blue eyes were now a menacing red. The ruby heart necklace she always wore was cracked and now midnight blue in color.

"_What did you do to them?"_ Spyro roared in his mind.

'What do you mean? I did nothing. You are the cause of all of this. What you did was nothing they didn't want you to do. They were corrupted because they wished to be, so you made it happen.' The dark dragon's mind echoed, clearly audible to Spyro. 'Jet managed to lure many of your friends away though. He made an alliance with Eclipse and started his own rebellion, quite a feat isn't it?'

"_Impossible! I would never do anything like that! And what about Casille? What happened to her?"_

'She tried, and failed, to run away with Jet. When you caught her, you tried to corrupt her by force like Malefor did to Cynder. It's too bad she didn't survive the change, she became so beautiful and had even more magical potential than Cynder…' the dark dragon gave an evil, echoing, psychotic laugh that rattled Spyro to his core. 'If you thought Cynder was tough, wait until you see the rest of your army!'

"_No! How could this have happened? I'm even worse than him…"_

'Spyro…' a voice called. Spyro gave no response.

'Spyro…' again, no response.

"Spyro!" Spyro's vision shifted as the last time his name was said, it was by Cynder who was back to normal. "Spyro, are you alright? I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have used that."

"W-what happened?" the purple dragon asked. He looked around to see everything was still the same as it had been. The ocean was still blue and the forest hadn't been leveled.

"It was a fear attack I read about in a book but I didn't mean for it to go so wrong…" Cynder explained. "It makes you live through your worst nightmares…"

"Well… it worked… nice job. By the way, does that have a name?" Spyro asked.

"The book called it 'Nightmare Blast'. So long as you don't hear it, you won't be affected. I'm so sorry for putting you through that…"

"I'm okay, really." He lied.

"Your eyes were watering and you're still shaking, you're far from okay… What did you see?"

"Nothing serious." He lied so Cynder wouldn't worry too much.

"In all of the years I've known you, you have never cried once. If it was enough to make you tear up then it's serious."

"Well it doesn't matter, it would never happen anyway so don't worry. I just need a minute to relax a little." Spyro said before lying down flat on his stomach and putting his forepaws crossed under his head. Unwilling to let Spyro try to handle everything by himself, Cynder jumped on his back with her front paws on his shoulders.

"I'll tell you what my nightmare is." She tried to coax him into sharing what had happened.

"Sounds fair, but you're going first." Spyro smirked. Cynder was caught completely off guard. She had expected him to still say no. "So what are you scared of?" The black dragoness quickly mumbled her fear under her breath.

"What was that?" Spyro asked without even turning his head to look. Again she mumbled her answer, slower this time so it was _almost_ understandable. "Speak up Cyn."

"Lightning, okay!" Cynder practically yelled. "I'm scared of lightning…" Spyro had to put his snout between his paws to suppress a laugh. Maybe it seemed scary to her, but it felt like nothing to him. Being able to use electricity, he never had a reason to be scared of lightning.

"Why are you so scared of lightning? You used to live in concurrent skies! The never ending thunderstorm there should have broken you in ages ago!" Spyro laughed until he noticed Cynder wasn't laughing.

"…I'm scared because I was hit by it several times. Flying through concurrent skies all the time during a thunderstorm didn't help. I was hit by lightning almost three times every time I took off! It hurt even worse when a battle didn't turn out the way Malefor wanted and he hit me with his own lightning as a punishment." Spyro was about to apologize for laughing but was surprised to hear Cynder laughing instead. "I've put my past behind me but that's the one thing I could never outgrow. It's something that maybe a hatchling should be scared of really."

The pair began talking about ways to fix Cynder's fear of lightning. One idea was to fight multiple electric dragons at once. Another was to go head to head with Volteer himself. Both of these were thought up by Cynder who let out a low growl on Spyro's idea of flying into a storm cloud while covered in metal armor, not a whole lot of thought on Spyro's part.

It didn't take long for the others to show up. Several adults were up front including Voltara, Chasm, Aeris, Torch, and Granite. Spyro and Cynder didn't know many of the others. They didn't think Warfang could have spared so many talented fighters to be used for a simple escort.

The two could practically feel the ground shake when they landed; some younger ones ended up crashing like Spyro did on his first flight instead of the graceful landings Cynder and many of the adults had always been able to do.

"I guess that means we're ready to go." Spyro said. Having completely forgotten about asking Spyro about his fear, Cynder nodded.

"Hey guys," Jet called as he stepped out of the crowd with Casille not far behind. "when you see Ignitus, can you ask him to bring me and Casille too? She decided to look at her family tree after all." He said, motioning to the white dragoness beside him.

"I'll ask, but I can't promise anything." Spyro answered.

'Ignitus, me and Cynder are ready. Can you bring Jet and Casille too?' he thought.

'Of course. Just one moment.' The Chronicler answered. A few seconds later, the four of them collapsed where they stood and their minds were taken to the time dragon's dreamscape.

The four dragons had been split into two groups. Spyro and Cynder on a glass platform that the former recognized as the place he had fought the elemental dragon that had Cynder's evil form. Jet and Casille were back in the Chronicler's library. Ignitus was standing in an open doorway with a view of both groups. He was only a few feet from Jet and Casille, but the other side of the door didn't have anything to walk on. The floor, walls, and ceiling just vanished into the space that made the 'trial room' as he called it. He began to give the heroes their instructions while he made Casille's book levitate off of its shelf and land in front of the white dragoness behind him. At the same time, he was mentally sending directions to the adult dragons back in the real world to direct them to Kaylis.

"Spyro, you have to fight Cynder without holding back. Neither of you are in your real bodies right now so don't worry about harming one another." The two heroes reluctantly nodded and had taken their stances before Ignitus interrupted. "I wasn't done. All of your elements are restricted as are most physical blows. You must fight only with convexity, it doesn't matter if you use the energy itself or use it for physical attacks, just make sure the power of every attack is drawn from it."

After hesitating for what felt like years, their fight started. The force from their fight was enough to rattle the entire building the rest of them were in. Even so, Casille opened her silvery white book to the last few pages. Starting from the top, her and Jet could see it was practically split down the middle. The right side was covered with wind dragons while the left side was nothing but ice dragons, the most recent one, her father, had even left Ignitus shocked.

**Sorry I've been gone for so long but that's what life does to you sometimes. Enough excuses though, Casille's creator has made another OC she wanted to be put in who will be revealed in the next chapter and I'm looking forward to this one. I know there's a lot of OCs but only a few are major, this is still focused on (almost) everyone's favorite dragon couple, Spyro and Cynder. Apparently people say this story is really good but I'm having trouble remembering what to do with punctuation when the sentence is in quotes. Oh well, the internet is here for a reason I guess. I think I've done enough babbling for this chapter though so let me stop before it gets worse.**


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